THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


THE 

NEGROES  IN  NEGROLAND; 

THE 

NEGROES    IN    AMERICA; 

AND 

NEGROES    GENERALLY. 

ALSO, 

THE  SEVERAL  RACES  OF  WHITE  MEN, 

CONSIDERED    A3    THE    INVOLUNTARY    AND    PREDESTINED    SUPPLANTERS    OF 
THE    BLACK    RACES. 

A  COMPILATION,  BY 

HINTON  ROWAN  HELPER, 

A  RATIONAL  REPUBLICAN, 

Author  of  "The  Impending  Crisis  of  the  South,"  "Nojoque,"  and  other  writings 
in  behalf  of  a  Free  and  White  America. 


"A  compassion  for  that  which  is  not  and  caunot  be  useful  or  lovely,  is  degrading  and  futile." 

HALI-U  WALDO  EMERSON. 

"  Among  the  negroes,  no  science  has  been  developed,  and  few  questions  are  ever  discussed,  except 
those  which  have  au  intimate  connection  with  the  wants  of  the  stomach." 

DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 

*'  It  has  been  proved  by  measurements,  by  microscopes,  by  analyses,  that  the  typical  negro  is  some- 
thing between  a  child,  a  dotard,  and  a  beast.    I  cannot  struggle  against  these  sacred  facts  of  science." 

WitfwooD  RKADK. 
"Our  country  might  well  have  shrunk  from  assuming  the  guardianship  of  the  negro." 

GEOKOE  BANCROFT. 

"  It  is  the  strictly  white  races  that  are  bearing  onward  the  flambeau  of  civilization,  as  displayed  in 
the  Germanic  families  alone."  JOSIAU  CLARK  NOIT. 


NEW    YORK: 
p.     W.      CAF^LETON 


LONDON:    S.  LOW,   SON,   &  CO. 

MDCCCLXVIU. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1808,  by 

G.    W.    CAKLETON, 
In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  for  the  Southern  District  of  New  York. 


TO 


(FORMERLY  OF  ASHEVILLE,  NOW  OF  RALEIGH,) 

WHO, 

AS  A  GOOD  MAN, 

AS  AN  ABLE   LAWYER,  AS  AN  EMINENT  CIVIL   PATRIOT, 
AS    A  WISE    AND    NATIONAL    STATESMAN, 

WILL, 
IT  IS  HOPED,  AT  NO  DISTANT  DAY 

BE 
A    FITLY    REWARDED    SERVANT    OF    NORTH    CAROLINA, 

IN 
THE  SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 

THIS  VOLUME 

IS  MOST  RESPECTFULLY 

DEDICATED. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 
Cannibalism  in  Negroland .••••..15 

CHAPTER  II. 
Human  Butcheries,  and  Human  Sacrifices  in  Negroland,     .....    19 

CHAPTER  III. 

Human  Skulls  as  Sacred  Relics  and  Ornaments  in  Negroland,    ....   25 

CHAPTER  IV. 
Blood-thirstiness  and  Barbarity  of  the  Negroes  in  Negroland,    .       .       .       .29 

CHAPTER  V. 
Slavery  and  the  Slave-trade  in  Negroland,      ........    37 

CHAPTER  VI. 
Heathenish  Superstition  and  Witchcraft  in  Negroland,        .....    15 

CHAPTER  VII. 
Fetichism,  Priestcraft,  and  Idolatry  in  Negroland,       ......    57 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
Rain  Doctors,  and  Other  Doctors  in  Negroland,    .......    70 

CHAPTER  IX. 
Nakedness,  Shamelessness,  and  Prostitution  in  Negroland,        .       .       .       .75 

CHAPTER  X. 
Drunkenness  and  Debauchery  in  Negroland, 79 

CHAPTER  XI. 

Night  Carousals,  and  Noisy  and  Nonsensical  Actions  in  Negroland,         .       .    80 

CHAPTER  XII. 

Inhospitality  to  Strangers,  Begging,  Extortion,  and  Robbery  in  Negroland,    .    82 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

Wrangling,  Lawlessness,  Penury,  and  Misery  in  Negroland,      .       .       .       .89 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
Theft,  as  a  Fine  Art,  among  the  Africans,      ........    94 

CHAPTER  XV. 
Lying,  as  an  Accomplishment,  among  the  Africans, 97 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
Duplicity  and  Venality  of  the  Negroes  in  Negroland,  ......    98 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

Revolting  Voracity  and  Gluttony  of  the  Negroes  in  Negroland,        .       .       .100 


VI  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 
Dislike  of  their  own  Color  by  the  Negroes  in  N egroland 102 

CHAPTER  XIX. 
Courtship,  Marriage,  and  Concubinage  in  Negroland, 105 

CHAPTER  XX. 
Mumbo  Jumbo  in  Negroland, 117 

CHAPTER  XXI. 
Funeral  and  Burial  Rites  in  Negroland,  .........  118 

CHAPTER  XXII. 
Indolence  and  Improvidence  of  the  Negroes,         .......  122 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 
Timidity  and  Cowardice  of  the  Negroes, 125 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 
African  Anecdotes, 130 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

,  Utter  Failure  and  Inntility  of  all  Missionary  Enterprises  in  Negroland,    .       .  134 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 

Miscellaneous  Peculiarities,  Manners,  Habits,  and  Customs,  of  the  Negroes 
in  Negroland, 138 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 
Huts,  Hovels,  and  Holes  (but  no  Houses)  in  Negroland, 152 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 
Gradual  Decrease,  and  Probable  Extinction  of  the  Negro  Race,       .       .       .  158 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 

Natural,  Repulsive,  and  Irreconcilable  Points  of  Difference,  Physical,  Mental, 
and  Moral,  between  the  Whites  and  the  Blacks, 162 

CHAPTER  XXX. 
American  Writers  on  the  Negro, 173 

CHAPTER  XXXI. 

Mulattoes ;  the  Offspring  of  Crimes  against  Nature, 216 

CHAPTER  XXXII. 
Albinos,  White  Negroes,  and  Other  Creatures  of  Preternatural  Whiteness,    .  223 

CHAPTER  XXXIII. 
Increasing  Pre-eminence  and  Predominance  of  the  White  Races,     .       .       .227 

APPENDIX  I., , 237 

"         II .249 


INTRODUCTION. 


THE  compiler  of  this  volume  deems  it  proper  to  protest 
here,  at  the  very  outset  of  his  undertaking,  against  the  un- 
just and  ill-boding  practice  of  indiscriminately  stigmatizing 
as  a  traitor  almost  every  man,  whether  in  the  North  or  in 
the  South,  in  the  East  or  in  the  West,  who,  in  the  exercise 
of  his  constitutional  rights  and  honest  convictions,  raises  his 
voice  in  opposition  to  the  revolutionary  and  destructive 
measures  of  the  party  now  dominant  in  our  National  Legis- 
lature. With  deep  solemnity  and  truth,  he  declares  that  he 
was  always  earnest  and  emphatic,  and  even  enthusiastic,  — 
and  not  less  so  now  than  heretofore,  —  in  deploring  and 
condemning  the  act  of  secession,  and,  at  the  same  time,  in 
justifying  and  defending  the  principles  upon  which  the  Gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States,  when  opposed  by  force  of 
arms,  maintained  itself,  and  re-established  its  authority  from 
the  Potomac  to  the  Rio  Grande.  Why,  then,  why  does  a 
man  who  never,  by  word  nor  by  deed,  gave  the  least  aid  or 
comfort  to  the  rebellion,  but,  on  the  contrary,  did  all  he 
could  to  weaken  and  suppress  it,  —  why  does  a  man  of  these 
antecedents,  a  plain,  unpretentious  citizen,  who,  until  he 
became  a  Republican,  was  always  a  Whig  of  the  school  of 
Clay  and  Webster ;  who,  from  first  to  last,  heartily  endorsed 
and  supported  the  administration  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  and 
who  has  no  ambition  beyond  the  exact  knowledge  and  per- 
formance of  his  duty ;  —  why  does  a  man  of  this  sort  find  it 
impossible  to  yield  his  suffrage  or  commendation  to  the 
party  now  in  power,  —  a  party  which,  with  Pharisaical  boast- 

7 


VIJI  INTRODUCTION. 

ing,  lays  claim  to  the  distinctive  and  exclusive  patriotism 
of  having  saved  the  country  from  disruption  ?  The  reason 
is  broad,  plain,  and  even  more  than  sufficient.  The  party 
has,  since  the  termination  of  the  war,  viciously  and  unpar- 
donably  abandoned  the  old  landmarks  of  just  and  sacred 
fealty  to  race ;  and  it  is  now  advocating  what  means  the 
prostitution  in  bulk  of  a  great  and  good  white  integer  to  a 
small  and  bad  black  fraction.  The  policy  of  the  Radical 
(not  the  Republican)  party,  if  carried  out  to  its  logical  ends, 
will  inevitably  result  in  the  forced  political,  religious,  civil, 
and  social  equality  of  the  white  and  black  races ;  and  the 
direful  sequence  of  that  result,  so  flagrantly  unnatural  and 
wrong  in  itself,  can  only  be  reasonably  looked  for  in  the  ulti- 
'  mate  degradation,  division,  and  destruction  of  the  Republic. 
It  is  in  the  sincere  hope  of  lessening  at  least  some  of  the 
dangers  of  the  shocking  and  wide-spread  calamities  thus  al- 
luded to,  that  this  compilation  is  offered  to  an  intelligent 
and  discriminating  public. 

There  are  now  in  the  United  States  of  America  thirty 
millions  of  white  people,  who  are  (or  ought  to  be)  bound 
together  by  the  ties  of  a  kindred  origin,  by  the  affinities  of  a 
sameness  of  noble  purpose,  by  the  links  of  a  common  na- 
tionality, and  by  the  cords  of  an  inseparable  destiny.  We 
have  here  also,  unfortunatelj'  for  us  all,  four  millions  of 
black  people,  whose  ancestors,  like  themselves,  were  never 
known  (except  in  very  rare  instances,  which  form  the  ex- 
ceptions to  a  general  rule)  to  aspire  to  any  other  condition 
than  that  of  base  and  beastlike  slavery.  These  black 
people  are,  by  nature,  of  an  exceedingly  low  and  grovelling 
disposition.  They  have  no  trait  of  character  that  is  lovely 
or  admirable.  They  are  not  high-minded,  enterprising,  nor 
prudent.  In  no  age,  in  no  part  of  the  world,  have  they,  of 
themselves,  ever  projected  or  advanced  any  public  or  private 
interest,  nor  given  expression  to  any  thought  or  sentiment 
that  could  worthily  elicit  the  praise,  or  even  the  favorable 


INTRODUCTION.  /T 

mention,  of  the  bet'er  portion  of  mankind.  Seeing,  then, 
that  the  negro  does,  indeed,  belong  to  a  lower  and  inferior 
order  of  beings,  why,  in  the  name  of  Heaven,  why  should  we 
forever  degrade  and  disgrace  both  ourselves  and  our  pos- 
terity by  entering,  of  our  own  volition,  into  more  intimate 
relations  with  him  ?  May  God,  in  his  restraining  mercy,  for- 
bid that  we  should  ever  do  this  most  foul  and  wicked  thing ! 
Acting  under  the  influence  of  that  vile  spirit  of  deception 
and  chicanery  which  is  always  familiar  with  every  false  pre- 
tence, the  members  of  a  Radical  Congress,  the  editors  of  a 
venal  press,  and  other  peddlers  of  perverted  knowledge,  are 
now  loudly  proclaiming  that  nowhere  in  our  country,  hence- 
forth, must  there  be  any  distinction,  any  discrimination,  on 
account  of  color ;  thereby  covertly  inculcating  the  gross 
error  of  inferring  or  supposing  that  color  is  the  only  differ- 
ence —  and  that  a  very  trivial  difference  —  between  the 
whites  and  the  blacks  !  Now,  once  for  all,  in  conscientious 
deference  to  truth,  let  it  be  distinctly  made  known  and  ac- 
knowledged, that,  in  addition  to  the  black  and  baneful  color 
of  the  negro,  there  are  numerous  other  defects,  physical, 
mental,  and  moral,  which  clearly  mark  him,  when  compared 
with  the  white  man,  as  a  very  different  and  inferior  creature. 
While,  therefore,  with  an  involuntary  repugnance  which  we 
cannot  control,  and  with  a  wholesome  antipathy  which  it 
would  be  both  unnatural  and  unavailing  in  us  to  attempt  to 
destroy,  we  behold  the  crime-stained  blackness  of  the  negro, 
let  us,  also,  at  the  same  time,  take  cognizance  of 

His  low  and  compressed  Forehead ; 

His  hard,  thick  Skull ; 

His  small,  backward-thrown  Brain ; 

His  short,  crisp  Hair ; 

His  flat  Nose ; 

His  thick  Lips ; 

His  projecting,  snout-like  Mouth ; 


X  INTRODUCTION. 

His  strange,  Eunuch-toned  Voice ; 
The  scantiness  of  Beard  on  his  Face  ; 
The  Toughness  and  Unsensitiveness  of  his  Skin ; 
The  Thinness  and  Shrunkenness  of  his  Thighs ; 
His  curved  Knees ; 
His  calfless  Legs ; 
His  low,  short  Ankles  ; 
His  long,  flat  Heels ; 
His  glut-shaped  Feet ; 

The  general  Angularity  and  Oddity  of  his  Frame ; 
The  Malodorous  Exhalations  from  his  Person ; 
His  Puerility  of  Mind ; 
His  Inertia  and  Sleepy-headedness ; 
His  proverbial  Dishonesty ; 
His  predisposition  to  fabricate  Falsehoods  ;  and 
His  Apathetic  Indifference  to  all  Propositions  and  Enter- 
prises of  Solid  Merit. 

Many  other  differences  might  be  mentioned ;  but  the  score 
and  more  of  obvious  and  undeniable  ones  here  enumerated 
ought  to  suffice  for  the  utter  confusion  and  shame  of  all  those 
disingenuous  politicians  and  others,  who,  knowing  better,  and 
who  are  thus  guilty  of  the  crime  of  defeating  the  legitimate 
ends  of  their  own  knowledge,  would,  for  mere  selfish  and 
partisan  purposes,  convey  the  delusive  impression  that  there 
is  no  other  difference  than  that  of  color. 

Now,  far  more  than  at  any  time  hitherto,  the  white  people 
of  the  United  States,  influenced  by  circumstances  which  are 
well  understood,  seem  to  be  particularly  interested  to  know 
precisely  what  manner  of  man  the  negro  is.  This  is  an 
auspicious  fact.  It  augurs  favorably  for  the  whole  country. 
What  the  people  require  now  is  light,  information,  knowl- 
edge. Let  them  have  this,  and  the  great  principles  of 
Virtue,  Truth,  Right,  and  Honor  will  be  maintained.  Only 
let  the  masses  of  our  people  earnestly  and  fairly  prosecute 


INTRODUCTION.  XI 

their  inquiries  and  investigations  in  reference  to  the  negro, 
and  they  will,  erelong,  by  the  irresistible  force  of  involun- 
tary conviction,  come  to  pronounce  an  enlightened  and  just 
judgment  upon  all  of  the  more  important  questions  which 
now  affect  the  relations  of  the  two  heterogeneous  races  among 
us.  In  the  very  nature  and  fitness  of  things,  it  cannot  be 
otherwise  than  that  the  verdict  which,  at  no  distant  day, 
may  thus  be  looked  for  from  the  public,  will  be  a  conclusive 
finding  and  a  finality  against  the  negro,  —  a  verdict  which, 
of  rightful  necessity,  must  be  sweepingly  abrogative  of  all 
the  hasty  and  unsound  decisions  which  have  been  so  recently 
and  so  rashly  pronounced  by  the  corrupt  arbiters  to  whom 
the  Radical  party  owes  its  inexpressibly  ignoble  and  per- 
nicious existence. 

To  many  worthy  persons,  who  desire  to  deal  intelligently 
and  honestly  with  the  political  questions  which  are  now  agi- 
tating the  public  mind,  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  nature 
of  the  negro  has  become  almost  indispensable ;  and,  to  all 
persons  of  this  sort,  it  is  humbly  hoped  and  believed  that  this 
compilation  may  prove  highly  serviceable.  Attention  is  par- 
ticularly invited. to  the  testimonies,  herein  quoted,  of  such 
observant  and  veracious  African  travellers  as  Mungo  Park, 
Denham,  Clapperton,  Lander,  Livingstone,  Barth,  Lichten- 
stein,  Du  Chaillu,  Caillie,  Valdez,  Bruce,  Baker,  Speke,  Dun- 
can, Wilson,  Moffat,  Reade,  Richardson,  Burton,  and  Barrow. 
Following  the  interesting  and  instructive  statements  of  these 
disinterested  white  men,  mostly  Europeans,  who  have  seen 
the  negro  in  Negroland,  are  also  portrayed  the  opinions  of 
numerous  American  writers,  whose  views  of  the  negro,  and 
of  the  races  of  men  generally,  are  equally  essential  to  a  proper 
understanding  of  all  the  points  in  controversy.  Of  these  Amer- 
ican writers,  those  from  the  North  are  here  more  particularly 
referred  to ;  and  it  is  trusted  that  the  reader  will  ponder  well 
the  words  of  such  truly  able  and  representative  men  as  John 
Adams,  Daniel  Webster,  Horace  Mann,  Theodore  Parker, 


XII  INTRODUCTION. 

Samuel  George  Morton,  "William  Henry  Seward,  and  others 
of  scarcely  less  distinction.  Among  the  ablest  and  best  of 
the  Southern  men,  from  whose  writings  on  the  negro,  and  on 
other  kindred  subjects,  extracts  are  here  given,  will  be  noticed 
the  names  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  Henry  Clay,  Thomas  Hart 
Benton,  Abraham  Lincoln,  Montgomery  Blair,  and  Josiah 
Clark  Nott.  No  language  of  the  compiler  can  do  justice  to 
the  perfect  portraiture  which  we  have  of  the  negro  from  the 
pen  of  the  philosophic  and  profound  Jefferson.  Let  his  ster- 
ling words  of  wisdom  be  most  thoroughly  and  attentively  pe- 
rused. It  will  be  particularly  observed  that  everything  herein 
quoted  from  him  was  written  many  years  subsequently  to  the 
time  when  he  drafted  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  The 
fact  should  also  be  constantly  borne  in  mind  that,  while  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  Mr.  Jefferson,  in  all  rational 
probability,  had  no  reference  whatever  to  any  race  except 
that  to  which  he  himself  belonged,  in  the  extracts  herein 
given,  he  discusses  the  negro  by  emphatic  and  frequent  des- 
ignation, and  in  the  most  direct  and  positive  manner.  By 
reference  to  the  Index,  the  reader  will  perceive  the  names  of 
many  other  eminent  and  unimpeachable  writers,  both  North- 
ern and  Southern,  —  and  also  European,  —  to  all  of  whom 
the  compiler,  at  least,  would  here  offer  his  most  hearty  ac- 
knowledgments for  much  new  and  valuable  information. 

There  are  many  points  of  general  dissatisfaction  and  dis- 
pute, cwhich  should  not,  on  any  account,  be  overlooked  in  the 
discussion  of  the  subjects  here  presented.  One  of  these  is, 
that  white  people,  whose  reason  and  honor  have  not  been  vi- 
tiated, object  to  close  relationship  with  negroes,  not  wishing 
to  live  with  them  in  the  same  house  ;  not  wishing  to  fellow- 
ship with  them  in  the  same  society,  assembly,  or  congrega- 
tion ;  not  wishing  to  ride  with  them  in  the  same  omnibus, 
car,  or  carriage  ;  and  not  wishing  to  mess  with  them  at  the 
same  table,  whether  at  a  hotel,  in  a  restaurant,  on  a  steamer, 
or  elsewhere.  Now,  any  and  every  white  person  who  does 


INTRODUCTION.  XIII 

not  think  and  act  in  strict  accordance  with  the  just  and  pure 
promptings  here  indicated,  is,  in  reality,  a  most  unworthy  and 
despicable  representative  of  his  race.  Even  the  lower  animals, 
the  creatures  of  mere  instinct,  —  the  beasts,  the  birds,  and 
the  fishes,  —  many  distinct  species  of  which  are  apparently 
quite  similar,  set  us  daily  and  hourly  examples  of  the  emi- 
nent propriety  of  each  kind  forming  and  maintaining  separate 
communities  of  their  own  ;  and  so  we  always  find  them,  — 
in  herds,  in  flocks,  and  in  shoals.  How  can  the  negro  be  a 
fit  person  to  occupy,  in  any  capacity,  our  houses  or  our  ho- 
tels, our  theatres  or  our  churches,  our  schools  or  our  colleges, 
our  steamers  or  our  vehicles,  or  any  other  place  or  places 
of  uncommon  comfort  and  convenience,  which  owe  their  cre- 
ation, their  proper  uses,  and  their  perpetuity,  to  the  whites 
alone,  —  places  and  improvements  about  which  the  negro,  of 
himself,  is,  and  always  has  been,  absolutely  ignorant  and  in- 
different ?  Neither  in  his  own  country  nor  elsewhere  has  the 
negro  ever  built  a  house  or  a  theatre  ;  he  has  never  erected 
a  church  nor  a  college  ;  he  has  never  constructed  a  steamer 
nor  a  railroad,  nor  a  railroad-car, — nor,  except  when  under 
the  special  direction  and  control  of  superior  intelligence,  has 
he  ever  invented  or  manufactured  even  the  minutest  append- 
age of  any  one  of  the  distinctive  elements  or  realities  of 
human  progress.  Yet,  let  this  not,  by  any  means,  be  un- 
derstood as  an  argument,  nor  even  as  a  hint,  in  behalf  of 
slavery.  It  is  to  the  great  and  lasting  honor  of  the  Repub- 
lic that  slavery  in  the  United  States  is  abolished  forever. 
In  losing  her  slaves,  the  South  lost  nothing  that  was  worth 
the  keeping.  Had  slavery  only  been  abolished  by  law  many 
years  ago,  our  whole  country  would  be  infinitely  better  off 
to-day. 

Never  will  it  be  possible  for  the  compiler  to  erase  from  his 

memory  the  feelings  of  weighty  sadness  and  disgust  which 

overcame  him,  a  few  months  since,  when,  while  sojourning 

in  the  city  of  Washington,  he  walked,  one  day,  into  the  Cap- 

2 


XIV  INTRODUCTION. 

itol,  and,  leisurely  passing  into  the  galleries  of  the  two  houses 
of  Congress,  beheld  there,  uncouthly  lounging  and  dozing 
upon  the  seats,  a  horde  of  vile,  ignorant,  and  foul-scented 
negroes.  He  was  perplexed,  shocked,  humiliated,  and  indig- 
nant, —  and  could  not  sit  down.  With  merited  emotions  of 
bitterness  and  contempt  for  those  narrow-minded  white  men, 
through  whose  detestable  folly  and  selfishness  so  great  an 
outrage  against  public  propriety  and  decency  had  been  per- 
petrated, he  turned  away  ;  —  indeed,  it  was  not  in  his  power 
to  contemplate  with  calmness  that  motley  and  monstrous 
manifestation  of  national  incongruity,  ugliness,  and  disgrace. 
Then  it  was  that,  for  the  first  time  in  his  life,  he  wished  him- 
self a  Hercules,  in  order  that  he  might  be  able  to  clean, 
thoroughly  and  at  once,  those  Augean  stables  of  the  black 
ordure  and  Radical  filth  which,  therein  and  elsewhere,  had 
already  accumulated  to  an  almost  insufferable  excess.  It 
was  the  powerful  and  long-lingering  momentum  of  the  im- 
pressions received  on  that  occasion,  more  than  any  other 
circumstance,  that  gave  definite  form  and  resolution  to  the 
purpose  (although  the  idea  had  been  previously  entertained) 
of  preparing  this  compilation.  The  object  of  the  compiler 
will  have  been  well  attained  if  the  work  aids  materially  in 
more  fully  convincing  his  countrymen,  North,  South,  East 
and  "West,  that  negro  equality,  negro  supremacy,  and  negro 
domination,  as  now  tyrannically  enforced  at  the  point  of  the 
bayonet,  are  cruel  and  atrocious  innovations,  which  ought  to 
be  speedily  terminated.  H.  R.  H. 

ASHEVILLE,  NOBTH  CAROLINA,  June  2,  1868. 


THE  NEGROES  IN  NEGROLAND. 


CHAPTER  I. 

CANNIBALISM  IN  NEGROLAND. 

"  IT  is  plain,  from  all  history,  that  two  abominable  practices,  — 
the  one  the  eating  of  men,  the  other  of  sacrificing  them  to  the 
devil, — prevailed  all  over  Africa.  The  India  trade,  as  we  have 
seen  in  very  early  ages,  first  established  the  buying  and  selling  of 
slaves ;  since  that  time,  the  eating  of  men,  or  sacrificing  them, 
has  so  greatly  decreased  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  peninsula,  that 
now  we  scarcely  hear  of  an  instance  of  either  of  these  that  can  be 
properly  vouched.  On  the  western  part,  towards  the  Atlantic 
Ocean,  where  the  sale  of  slaves  began  a  considerable  time  later, 
after  the  discovery  of  America  and  the  West  Indies,  both  of  these 
horrid  practices  are  general." — Bruce's  Africa,  Vol.  I.,  page  393. 


"The  common  food  of  the  natives  of  Ansiko  is  men's  flesh, 
insomuch  that  their  markets  are  provided  with  that,  as  ours  in 
Europe  with  beef  or  mutton :  all  prisoners  of  war,  unless  they  can 
sell  them  alive  with  greater  advantage,  otherwise,  as  we  said, 
they  fatten  them  for  slaughter,  and  at  last  sell  them  to  the  butchers. 
To  this  savage  barbarity  they  are  so  naturalized,  that  some  slaves, 
whether  as  weary  of  their  lives,  or  to  show  their  love  to  their 
masters,  will  proffer  themselves  freely  to  be  killed  and  eaten. 
But  that  which  is  most  inhuman,  and  beyond  the  ferocity  of  beasts, 
is,  that  the  father  scruples  not  to  eat  his  son,  nor  the  son  his  father, 
nor  one  brother  the  other,  but  take  them  by  force,  devouring  their 
flesh,  the  blood  yet  reeking  hot  between  their  teeth."  —  Ogilby's 
Africa,  page  518. 

15 


16  CANNIBALISM  IN  NEGROLAND. 

"  Whosoever  dies,  be  the  disease  never  so  contagious,  yet  they 
eat  the  flesh  immediately,  as  a  festival  dish."  —  Ogilby's  Africa* 
page  518. 


"  Bello,  the  Governor  of  Sackatoo,  said  that  whenever  a  person 
complained  of  sickness  amongst  [ihe  Yamyams,  even  though  only 
a  slight  headache,  they  are  killed  instantly,  for  fear  they  should 
be  lost  by  death,  as  they  will  not  eat  a  person  that  has  died  by 
sickness ;  that  the  person  falling  sick  is  requested  by  some  other 
family,  and  repaid  when  they  had  a  sick  relation ;  that  universally 
when  they  went  to  war,  the  dead  and  wounded  were  always  eaten ; 
that  the  hearts  were  claimed  by  the  head  men ;  and  that,  on  asking 
them  why  they  eat  human  flesh,  they  said  it  was  better  than  any 
other,  and  that  the  heart  and  breasts  of  a  woman  were  the  best 
part  of  the  body."  —  Denham  and  QlappertorCs  Africa,  Vol.  IV., 
page  262. 


"  Many  of  Ibrahim's  party  had  been  frequent  witnesses  to  acts 
of  cannibalism,  during  their  residence  among  the  Makkarikas. 
They  described  these  cannibals  as  remarkably  good  people,  but 
possessing  a  peculiar  taste  for  dogs  and  human  flesh.  They  ac- 
companied the  trading  party  in  their  razzias,  and  invariably  ate 
the  bodies  of  the  slain.  The  traders  complained  that  they  were 
bad  associates,  as  they  insisted  upon  killing  and  eating  the  chil- 
dren which  the  party  wished  to  secure  as  slaves ;  their  custom 
was  to  catch  a  child  by  its  ankles,  and  to  dash  its  head  against 
the  ground ;  thus  killed,  they  opened  the  abdomen,  extracted  the 
stomach  and  intestines ;  and  tying  the  two  ankles  to  the  neck,  they 
carried  the  body  by  slinging  over  the  shoulder,  and  thus  returned 
to  camp,  where  they  divided  it  by  quartering,  and  boiling  it  in  a 
large  pot.  .  .  .  One  of  the  slave  girls  attempted  to  escape, 
and  her  proprietor  immediately  fired  at  her  with  his  musket,  and 
she  fell  wounded ;  the  ball  had  strack  her  in  the  side.  The  girl 
was  remarkably  fat,  and  from  the  wound  a  large  lump  of  yellow 
fat  exuded.  No  sooner  had  she  fallen  than  the  Makkarikas  rushed 
upon  her  in  a  crowd,  and,  seizing  the  fat,  they  tore  it  from  the 
wound  in  handfuls,  the  girl  being  still  alive,  while  the  crowd  were 
quarrelling  for  the  disgusting  prize.  Others  killed  her  with  a 


CANNIBALISM  IN  NEGROLAND.  17 

lance,  and  at  once  divided  her  by  cutting  off  the  head,  and  split- 
ting the  body  with  their  lances,  used  as  knives,  cutting  longitudi- 
nally from  between  the  legs  along  the  spine  to  the  neck." — Baker's 
Great  Basin  of  the  Nile,  page  201. 


"  The  butchers'  shops  of  the  Anziques  are  filled  with  human 
flesh,  instead  of  that  of  oxen  or  of  sheep.  For  they  eat  the  ene- 
mies whom  they  take  in.  battle.  They  fatten,  slay,  and  devour 
their  slaves  also,  unless  they  think  they  shall  get  a  good 
price  for  them.  .  .  .  There  are  indeed  many  cannibals,  .  .  . 
but  none  such  as  these,  since  the  others  only  eat  their  enemies; 
but  these  eat  their  own  blood  relations."  —  African  Explorations 
by  Eduardo  Lopez,  quoted  by  Huxley,  in  Man's  Place  in  Nature, 
page  55. 


"  On  the  occasion  of  the  appointment  of  a  chief  to  the  supreme 
command,  a  bullock  is  sacrificed  by  de  Samba  Golambole,  as  also 
a  white  sheep,  and  a  white  or  fawn-colored  pigeon,  together  with 
various  other  victims.  But  the  principal  sacrifice  is  that  of  one 
slave  from  each  of  the  nations  under  the  dominion  of  the  para- 
mount chief,  the  heads  of  whom  are  carried  in  triumph  and  ex- 
hibited to  the  populace,  accompanied  by  drums  and  other  instru- 
ments. The  bodies  are  added  to  those  of  the  other  animals,  and 
all  cooked  together,  and  distributed  as  a  savory  dish  to  the  chief 
and  the  other  nobles." —  Valdez's  Africa,  Vol.  II.,  page  331. 


"  The  next  morning  we  moved  off  for  the  Fan  village,  and  now 
I  had  the  opportunity  to  satisfy  myself  as  to  a  matter  I  had  cher- 
ished some  doubt  on  before,  namely,  the  cannibal  practices  of 
these  people.  I  was  satisfied  but  too  soon.  As  we  entered  the 
town  I  perceived  some  bloody  remains  which  looked  to  me  to  be 
human;  but  I  passed  on,  still  incredulous.  Presently  we  passed 
a  woman  who  solved  all  doubt.  She  bore  with  her  a  piece  of  the 
thigh  of  a  human  body,  just  as  we  should  go  to  market  and  carry 
thence  a  roast  or  a  steak."  —  Du  Chaillu's  Equatorial  Africa,  page 
103. 

2* 


18  CANNIBALISM  11*  NEGROLAND. 

"Until  to-day  I  never  could  believe  two  stories,  —  both  well 
authenticated,  but  seeming  quite  impossible  to  any  one  un- 
acquainted with  this  people,  —  which  are  told  of  them  on  the  Ga- 
boon. A  party  of  Fans,  who  came  down  to  the  sea-shore  once  to 
see  the  sea,  actually  stole  a  freshly-buried  body  from  the  ceme- 
tery, and  cooked  it  and  ate  it  among  them ;  and  another  party 
took  another  body,  conveyed  it  into  the  woods,  cut  it  up,  and 
smoked  the  flesh,  which  they  carried  away  with  them.  The  cir- 
cumstances made  a  great  fuss  among  the  Mpongwe,  and  even 
the  missionaries  heard  of  it,  but  I  never  credited  the  stories  till 
now,  though  the  facts  were  well  authenticated  by  witnesses.  In 
fact,  the  Fans  seem  regular  ghouls,  only  they  practise  their  horrid 
custom  unblushingly  and  in  open  day,  and  have  no  shame  about 
it.  These  stories  seem  so  incredible,  and  even  the  fact  that  these 
people  actually  buy  and  eat  the  corpses  of  their  neighbors  —  rest- 
ing as  it  does  upon  my  statement  alone  —  has  excited  so  much 
evident  disbelief  among  friends  in  the  country,  to  whom  I  have 
mentioned  this  custom,  that  I  am  very  glad  to  be  able  to  avail 
myself  of  the  concurrent  testimony  of  a  friend,  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Walker,  of  the  Gaboon  mission,  who  authorizes  me  to  say  that  he 
vouches  for  the  entire  truth  of  the  two  stories  above  related."  — 
Du  Chaillifs  Equatorial  Africa,  page  120. 


"  While  I  was  talking  to  the  king  to-day,  some  Fans  brought  in 
a  dead  body,  which  they  had  bought  in  a  neighboring  town,  and 
which  was  now  to  be  divided.  I  could  see  that  the  man  had  died 
of  some  disease.  I  confess  I  could  not  bear  to  stay  for  the  cut- 
ting up  of  the  body,  but  retreated  when  all  was  ready.  It  made 
me  sick  all  over.  I  remained  till  the  infernal  scene  was  about  to 
begin,  and  then  retreated.  Afterward  I  could  hear  them  from 
my  house  growing  noisy  over  the  division.  This  is  a  form  of  can- 
nibalism —  eating  those  who  have  died  of  sickness  —  of  which  I 
had  never  heard  in  any  people ;  so  that  I  determined  to  inquire  if 
it  were  indeed  a  general  custom,  or  merely  an  exceptional  freak. 
They  spoke  without  embarrassment  about  the  whole  matter,  and 
I  was  informed  that  they  constantly  buy  the  dead  of  the  Osheba 
tribe,  who,  in  return,  buy  theirs.1'  —  Du  Chaillu's  Equatorial  Af- 
rica, page  120. 


HUMAN  B  UTCHERIES  AND  SACRIFICES  IN  NEGROLAND.     19 

"After  visiting  the  house  assigned  me,  I  was  taken  through 
the  town,  where  I  saw  more  dreadful  signs  of  cannibalism  in  piles 
of  human  bones,  mixed  up  with  offal,  thrown  at  the  sides  of  sev- 
eral houses."  —  Du  Chailla's  Equatorial  Africa,  page  105. 


"  On  going  out  next  morning  I  saw  a  pile  of  ribs,  leg  and  arm 
bones,  and  skulls  piled  up  at  the  back  of  my  house,  which  looked 
horrid  enough  to  me.  In  fact,  symptoms  of  cannibalism  stare  me 
in  the  face  wherever  I  go."  —  Du  Chaillu's  Equatorial  Africa,  page 
106. 


CHAPTER    II. 

HUMAN    BUTCHERIES    AND   HUMAN    SACRIFICES    IN    NEGROLAND. 

"  THE  main  object  contemplated  in  the  national  anniversary  of 
Dahomey  is,  that  the  king  may  water  the  graves  of  his  ancestors 
with  the  blood  of  human  victims.  These  are  numerous,  consist- 
ing  of  prisoners  taken  in  war,  of  condemned  criminals,  and  of 
many  seized  by  lawless  violence.  The  captives  are  brought  out 
in  succession,  with  their  arms  pinioned,  and  a  feticheer,  laying 
his  hand  upon  the  devoted  head,  utters  a  few  magic  words,  while 
another  from  behind,  with  a  large  scimitar,  severs  it  from  the 
body,  when  shouts  of  applause  ascend  from  the  surrounding  mul- 
titude. At  any  time  when  the  king  has  a  message  to  convey  to 
one  of  his  deceased  relations,  he  delivers  it  to  one  of  his  subjects, 
then  strikes  off  his  head,  that  he  may  carry  it  to  the  other  world ; 
and,  if  anything  further  occurs  to  him  after  he  has  performed  this 
ceremony,  he  delivers  it  to  another  messenger,  whom  he  de- 
spatches in  the  same  manner.  Another  great  object  of  this  period- 
ical festival  is  the  market  for  wives.  All  the  unmarried  females 
throughout  the  kingdom  are  esteemed  the  property  of  the  sover- 
eign, and  are  brought  to  the  annual  customs,  to  be  placed  at  his 
disposal.  He  selects  for  himself  such  as  appear  most  beautiful 
and  engaging,  and  retails  the  others  at  enormous  prices  to  his 


20      HUMAN  BUTCHERIES  AND  SACRIFICES  IN  NEGROLAND. 

chiefs  and  nobles.  No  choice  on  this  occasion  is  allowed  to  the 
purchaser.  In  return  for  his  twenty  thousand  cowries,  a  wife  is 
handed  out,  and,  even  be  she  old  and  ugly,  he  must  rest  con- 
tented; nay,  some,  it  is  said,  have  in  mockery  been  presented 
with  their  own  mothers.  The  king  usually  keeps  his  wives  up  to 
the  number  of  three  thousand,  who  serve  him  in  various  capaci- 
ties,—  being  partly  trained  to  act  as  a  body-guard,  regularly 
regimented,  and  equipped  with  drums,  flags,  bows  and  arrows, 
while  a  few  cany  muskets.  They  all  reside  in  the  palace,  which 
consists  merely  of  an  immense  assemblage  of  cane  and  mud  tents, 
enclosed  by  a  high  wall.  The  skulls  and  jawbones  of  enemies 
slain  in  battle  form  the  favorite  ornament  of  the  palaces  and  tem- 
ples. The  king's  apartment  is  paved,  and  the  walls  and  roof 
stuck  over  with  these  horrid  trophies ;  and,  if  a  further  supply 
appears  desirable,  he  announces  to  his  general  that  his  house 
wants  thatch,  when  a  war  for  that  purpose  is  immediately  under- 
taken." —  Murray's  African  Discoveries,  page  199. 


"  At  Coomassie  the  customs,  or  human  sacrifices,  are  practised 
on  a  scale  still  more  tremendous  than  at  Dahomey.  The  king  had 
lately  sacrificed  on  the  grave  of  his  mother  three  thousand  victims, 
two  thousand  of  whom  were  Fantee  prisoners ;  and  at  the  death 
of  the  late  sovereign,  the  sacrifice  was  continued  weekly  for  three 
months,  consisting  each  time  of  two  hundred  slaves.  The  absurd 
belief  here  entertained,  that  the  rank  of  the  deceased  in  the  future 
world  is  decided  by  the  train  which  he  carries  along  with  him, 
makes  filial  piety  interested  in  promoting  by  this  means  the  exal- 
tation of  a  departed  parent.  On  these  occasions,  the  caboceers 
and  princes,  in  order  to  court  royal  favor,  often  rush  out,  seize  the 
first  person  they  meet,  and  drag  him  in  for  sacrifice.  While  the 
customs  last,  therefore,  it  is  with  trembling  steps  that  any  one 
crosses  his  threshold ;  and,  when  compelled  to  do  so,  he  rushes 
along  with  the  utmost  speed,  dreading  every  instant  the  murder- 
ous grasp  which  would  consign  him  to  death." — Murray's  African 
Discoveries,  page  204. 


"  The  practice  of  offering  human  sacrifices  to  appease  evil  spirits 
is  common ;  but  in  no  place  more  frequent,  or  on  a  larger  scale, 


HUMAN  BUTCHERIES  AND  SACRIFICES  IN  NEGROLAND.    21 

than  in  the  kingdoms  of  Ashantee  and  Dahomi,  and  in  the  Bonny 
River.  Large  numbers  of  victims,  chiefly  prisoners  of  war,  are 
statedly  sacrificed  to  the  manes  of  the  royal  ancestors  in  both  of 
the  first-mentioned  places,  and  under  circumstances  of  shocking 
and  almost  unparalleled  cruelty.  At  the  time  of  the  death  of  a 
king,  a  large  number  of  his  principal  wives  and  favorite  slaves 
are  put  to  death,  not  so  much,  however,  as  sacrifices  to  appease 
his  wrath,  as  to  be  his  companions  and  attendants  in  another 
world,  —  a  practice,  which,  though  cruel  and  revolting  in  itself, 
nevertheless  keeps  up  a  lively  impression  of  a  future  state  of  ex- 
istence." —  Wilson's  Africa,  page  219. 


"  We  find  throughout  all  the  country  north  of  20°,  which  I  con- 
sider to  be  real  negro,  the  custom  of  slaughtering  victims  to  ac- 
company the  departed  soul  of  a  chief,  and  human  sacrifices  are 
occasionally  offered,  and  certain  parts  of  the  bodies  are  used  as 
charms."  —  Livingstone's  Africa,  page  631. 


"  When  a  chief  dies,  a  number  of  servants  are  slaughtered  with 
him  to  form  his  company  in  the  other  world."  —  Livingstone's 
Africa,  page  342. 


"When  an  Ashantee  of  any  distinction  dies,  several  of  the 
deceased's  slaves  are  sacrificed.  This  horrible  custom  originates 
in  some  shadowy  ideas  of  a  future  state  of  existence ;  in  which 
they  imagine  that  those  who  have  departed  hence  stand  in  need 
of  food,  clothing,  and  other  things,  as  in  the  present  world ;  and 
that,  as  a  vast  number  of  concubines  and  slaves  are  the  chief 
marks  of  superiority  among  them  here,  so  it  must  also  be  in  a 
future  state.  Accordingly,  as  I  walked  out  early  in  the  morning, 
I  saw  the  mangled  corpse  of  a  poor  female  slave,  who  had  been 
beheaded  during  the  night,  lying  in  the  public  street.  It  was 
partially  covered  with  a  common  mat,  and,  as  this  covering  is 
unusual,  I  concluded  that  it  was  thrown  over,  in  order  to  hide  it 
from  my  view.  In  the  course  of  the  day  I  saw  groups  of  the 
natives  dancing  round  this  victim  of  superstitious  cruelty,  with 
numerous  frantic  gestures,  and  who  seemed  to  be  in  the  very 


22    HUMAN  BUTCHERIES  AND  SACRIFICES  IN  NEQROLAND. 

zenith  of  their  happiness.  .  .  .  That  only  one  person  was 
immolated,  I  believe,  resulted  entirely  from  my  presence  in  the 
town." — Freeman's  Africa,  page  24. 


"  Amidst  great  ostentatious  display,  I  saw  what  was  calculated 
to  harrow  up  the  strongest  and  most  painful  feelings,  —  the  royal 
executioners,  bearing  the  blood-stained  stools  on  which  hundreds, 
and  perhaps  thousands,  of  human  victims  have  been  sacrificed  by 
decapitation,  and  also  the  large  death-drum,  which  is  beaten  at 
the  moment  when  the  fatal  knife  severs  the  head  from  the  body, 
the  very  sound  of  which  conveys  a  thrill  of  horror.  This  rude  in- 
strument, connected  with  which  are  most  dreadful  associations, 
was  literally  covered  with  dried  clots  of  blood,  and  decorated 
with  the  jawbones  and  skulls  of  human  victims." — Freeman's 
Africa,  page  47. 


"  To-day  another  human  victim  was  sacrificed,  on  account  of 
the  death  of  a  person  of  rank.  As  I  was  going  out  of  the  town, 
in  the  cool  of  the  evening,  I  saw  the  poor  creature  lying  on  the 
ground.  The  head  was  severed  from  the  body,  and  lying  at  a 
short  distance  from  it ;  several  large  turkey-buzzards  were  feast- 
ing on  the  wounds,  and  rolling  the  head  in  the  dust.  He  appeared 
to  be  about  eighteen  years  of  age ;  a  strong,  healthy  youth,  who 
might,  in  all  probability,  have  lived  forty,  fifty,  or  even  sixty 
years  longer." — Freeman's  Africa,  page  28. 


"  Throughout  the  day  I  heard  the  horrid  sound  of  the  death- 
drum,  and  was  told  in  the  evening  that  about  twenty-five  human 
victims  had  been  sacrificed,  some  in  the  town,  and  some  in  the 
suiTounding  villages,  the  heads  of  those  killed  in  the  villages 
being  brought  into  the  town  in  baskets.  ...  I  learned  that 
several  more  human  victims  had  been  immolated  during  the  day, 
but  could  not  ascertain  the  exact  number.  The  most  accurate 
account  I  could  obtain  was,  that  fifteen  more  had  suffered ;  making 
a  total  of  forty,  in  two  days.  .  .  .  These  poor  victims  were 
allowed  to  lie  naked  and  exposed  in  the  streets,  until  they  began 
to  decompose ;  and  such  is  the  callous  state  of  mind  in  which  the 


HUMAN  BUTCHERIES  AND  SACRIFICES  IN  NEGROLAND.   23 

people  live,  that  many  were  walking  about  among  the  putrefying 
bodies,  smoking  their  pipes,  with  amazing  indifference."  —  Free- 
man's Africa,  pages  53  and  54. 


"  The  executioner,  at  one  blow  on  the  back  of  the  neck,  divided 
the  head  from  the  body  of  the  first  culprit,  with  the  exception  of 
a  small  portion  of  the  skin,  which  was  separated  by  passing  the 
knife  underneath.  Unfortunately,  the  second  man  was  dreadfully 
mangled,  for  the  poor  fellow,  at  the  moment  the  blow  was  struck, 
having  raised  his  head,  the  knife  struck  in  a  slanting  direction  and 
only  made  a  large  wound ;  the  next  blow  caught  him  on  the  back 
of  the  head,  when  the  brain  protruded.  The  poor  fellow  strug- 
gled violently.  The  third  stroke  caught  him  across  the  shoulders, 
inflicting  a  dreadful  gash.  The  next  caught  him  on  the  neck, 
which  was  twice  repeated.  The  officer  steadying  the  criminal 
now  lost  his  hold  on  account  of  the  blood  which  rushed  from  the 
blood-vessels  on  all  who  were  near.  The  executioner,  now  quite 
palsied,  took  hold  of  the  head,  and,  after  twisting  it  several  times 
round,  separated  it  from  the  still  convulsed  and  struggling  trunk. 
During  the  latter  part  of  this  disgusting  execution  the  head  pre- 
sented an  awful  spectacle,  the  distortion  of  the  features,  and  the 
eyeballs  completely  upturned,  giving  it  a  horrid  appearance. 
The  next  man,  poor  fellow,  with  his  eyes  partially  shut  and  head 
drooping  forward  near  to  the  ground,  remained  all  this  time  in  sus- 
pense ;  casting  a  partial  glance  on  the  head  which  was  now  close 
to  him,  and  the  trunk  dragged  close  past  him,  the  blood  still  rush- 
ing from  it  like  a  fountain.  .  .  .  The  fourth  culprit  was  not 
so  fortunate,  his  head  not  being  separated  till  after  three  strokes. 
The  body  afterwards  rolled  over  several  times,  when  the  blood 
spurted  over  my  face  and  clothes.  The  most  disgusting  part  of 
this  abominable  and  barbarous  execution  was  that  of  an  old,  ill- 
looking  wretch,  who,  like  the  numerous  vultures,  stood  with  a 
small  calabash  in  his  hand,  ready  to  catch  the  blood  from  each 
individual,  which  he  greedily  devoured  before  it  had  escaped 
one  minute  from  the  veins.  .  .  .  After  decapitation  the  body 
is  immediately  dragged  off  by  the  heels  to  a  large  pit  at  a  con- 
siderable distance  from  the  town  and  thrown  therein,  and  is  im- 
mediately devoured  by  wolves  and  vultures,  which  are  here  so 


24  nVMAN  BUTCHERIES  AND  SACRIFICES  IN  NEGROLAND. 

ravenous  that  they  will  almost  take  your  victuals  from  you."  — 
Duncan 's  Africa,  Vol.  I.,  pages  250  and  252. 


"  On  our  way  up  the  river  Calabar  my  attention  was  attracted 
by  something  of  a  very  extraordinary  appearance  hanging  over 
the  water  from  the  branch  of  a  tree.  My  curiosity  was  excited  by 
it,  and  I  was  at  a  loss  to  conjecture  what  it  was.  I  did  not  remain 
long  in  suspense,  for  we  soon  passed  sufficiently  near  it  to  enable 
me  to  discover  that  it  was  the  body  of  one  of  the  natives  suspended 
by  the  middle,  with  the  feet  and  hands  just  touching  the  water. 
.  .  .  The  natives  of  this  place  are  pagans,  in  the  most  depraved 
condition.  They  believe  in  a  good  spirit,  who,  they  imagine, 
dwells  in  the  water;  and  sacrifices  such  as  that  just  mentioned 
are  frequently  made  to  him,  with  the  idea  of  gaining  his  favor  and 
protection.  The  object  selected  for  this  purpose  is  generally 
some  unfortunate  old  slave,  who  may  be  woi-n  out  and  incapable 
of  further  service,  or  unfit  for  the  market ;  and  he  is  thus  left  to 
suffer  death,  either  from  the  effects  of  the  sun,  or  from  the  fangs 
of  some  hungry  alligator  or  shark  which  may  chance  to  find  the 
body.  The  circumstance  of  the  hands  and  feet  being  just  al- 
lowed to  be  immersed  in  the  water  is  considered  by  these  deluded 
people  as  necessary,  and  they  are  thereby  rendered  an  easier 
prey."  —  Lander's  Travels  in  Africa,  Vol.  II. ,  page  315. 


'"  The  sixth  of  the  month  was  announced  as  the  beginning  of 
the  sacrificial  rites,  which  were  to  last  five  days.  Early  in  the 
morning,  two  hundred  females  of  the  Amazonian  guard,  naked  to 
the  waist,  but  richly  ornamented  with  beads  and  rings  at  eveiy 
joint  of  their  oiled  and  glistening  limbs,  appeared  in  the  area 
before  the  king's  palace,  armed  with  blunt  cutlasses.  Very  soon 
the  sovereign  made  his  appearance,  when  the  band  of  warriors 
began  their  manoeuvres,  keeping  pace,  with  rude  but  not  unmar- 
tial  skill,  to  the  native  drum  and  flute.  A  short  distance  from  the 
palace,  within  sight  of  the  square,  a  fort  or  inclosure,  about  nine 
feet  high,  had  been  built  of  adobe,  and  surrounded  by  a  pile  of 
tall  prickly  briers.  Within  this  barrier,  secured  to  stakes,  stood 
fifty  captives,  who  were  to  be  immolated  at  the  opening  of  the 
festival.  When  the  drill  of  the  Amazons  and  the  royal  review 


HUMAN  SKULLS  AS  SACRED  RELICS  AND  ORNAMENTS.      25 

were  over,  there  was,  for  a  considerable  time,  perfect  silence  in 
the  ranks  and  throughout  the  vast  multitudes  of  spectators. 
Presently,  at  a  signal  from  the  king,  one  hundred  of  the  women 
departed  at  a  run,  brandishing  their  weapons  and  yelling  their 
war-cry,  till,  heedless  of  the  thorny  barricade,  they  leaped  the 
walls,  lacerating  their  flesh  in  crossing  the  prickly  impediment. 
The  delay  was  short.  Fifty  of  these  female  demons,  with  torn 
limbs  and  bleeding  faces,  quickly  returned,  and  offered  their  howl- 
ing victims  to  the  king.  It  was  now  the  duty  of  this  personage  to 
begin  the  sacrifice  with  his  royal  hand.  Calling  the  female  whose 
impetuous  daring  had  led  her  foremost  across  the  thorns,  he  took 
a  glittering  sword  from  her  grasp,  and  in  an  instant  the  head  of 
the  first  victim  fell  to  the  dust.1'  —  Canofa  Twenty  Years  of  an 
African  Slaver,  page  267. 


CHAPTER  III. 

HUMAN  SKULLS  AS  SACRED  RELICS  AND  ORNAMENTS  IN  NEGRO- 
LAND. 

"  HUMAN  skulls  were  built  in  the  walls  of  the  palace,  about 
half  the  skull  projecting  beyond  the  surface  of  the  walls.  After  a 
number  of  introductions,  similar  to  those  on  the  former  days,  the 
king's  mother  entered  the  court,  preceded  by  six  women,  carrying 
large  brass  pans  filled  with  skulls,  with  shank-bones  fixed  perpen- 
dicularly to  the  outside  of  the  pans.  Another  pan,  covered  with 
scarlet  cloth,  as  also  two  other  pots  of  an  oval  shape,  were  carried 
on  the  heads  of  females,  with  a  skull  placed  on  the  top  or  over 
the  mouth  of  each.  After  parading  these  different  vessels  round 
the  palace-yard,  they  were  placed  on  the  ground,  in  front  of  sev- 
eral calabashes  (previously  placed  there),  containing  a  number 
of  scalps."  —  Duncan's  Africa,  Vol.  I.,  page  253. 


About  ten  yards  in  front  of  the  place  where  his  majesty  lay, 
3 


26     HUMAN  SKULLS  AS  SACRED  RELICS  AND  ORNAMENTS. 

three  skulls  were  placed  on  the  ground,  forming  an  equilateral 
triangle,  about  three  feet  apart.  At  a  little  distance  from  the 
three-named  skulls,  a  calabash  was  placed,  containing  several 
skulls  of  distinguished  men  taken  or  killed  in  war.  .  .  .  The 
pole  of  each  standard  was  mounted  with  the  skull  of  a  caboceer, 
or  ruler  of  a  town."  —  Duncan's  Africa,  Vol.  I.,  page  245. 


"  In  the  collection  of  skulls,  I  found  a  number  of  them  orna- 
mented with  brass,  and  riveted  together  with  iron.  These  were 
the  heads  of  rival  kings,  who  were  killed  by  the  king's  women  or 
wives.  Amongst  these  was  the  richly  ornamented  skull  of  the 
King  of  Nahpoo,  in  the  Annagoo  country ;  his  name  was  Adaffo. 
His  town  was  taken,  and  he  himself  made  prisoner,  by  the  female 
.regiments,  commanded  by  the  female  commander,  Apadomey. 
Many  of  the  skulls  still  retained  the  hair.  It  appears  that  this 
part  of  the  human  body  has  always  been  a  favorite  ornament  on 
the  palace  walls  of  Abomey,  and  even  in  the  walls,  entrances  of 
gateways  and  doorways."  —  Duncan's  Africa,  Vol.  II.,  page  276. 


"  Permission  to  see  the  town  was  given,  and  we  paid  a  visit  to 
the  Juju-house ;  a  noisy  crowd  attempted  to  rush  in  after  us ;  but 
a  vigorous  application  of  the  long  sticks  of  the  guards  drove  them 
back.  Masses  of  human  skulls  hang  from  the  walls,  and  numer- 
ous rows  of  skulls  cover  the  roof  of  a  sort  of  altar.  In  front  of 
this  altar  sat  the  Juju-man,  having  a  footstool  of  human  skulls. 
The  Okrika  had  eaten  the  victims  whose  skulls  decorate  the  Juju- 
house.  An  old  man  who  accompanied  us  spoke  with  evident 
gusto  of  the  different  cannibal  feasts  he  had  partaken  of,  and 
mentioned  the  parts  of  the  human  body  which  he  considered  the 
sweetest." —  Consul  Charles  Livingstone ;  at  the  Eight  of  Biafra. 


11  When  a  guest  is  entertained  of  whom  presents  are  expected, 
the  host,  in  a  quiet  way,  goes  from  time  to  time  into  the  fetich- 
house  and  scrapes  a  little  bone-powder  from  a  favorite  skull,  and 
puts  it  into  the  food  which  is  being  cooked,  as  a  present  to  the 
guest.  The  idea  is,  that,  by  consuming  the  scrapings  of  the 
skull,  the  blood  of  their  ancestors  enters  into  your  body,  and  thus, 


HUMAN  SKULLS  AS  SACKED  RELICS  AND    ORNAMENTS.    27 

becoming  of  one  blood,  you  are  naturally  led  to  love  them,  and 
grant  them  what  they  wish.  It  is  not  a  pleasant  subject  of  reflec- 
tion, but  I  have  no  doubt  been  operated  upon  on  previous  jour- 
neys ;  being  now,  however,  aware  of  the  custom,  I  refused  the 
food,  and  told  Mayolo  I  cared  very  little  to  eat  of  the  scraped 
skull  of  his  grandfather."  —  Du  GJiaillu's  Ashango-Land,  page  200. 


"  On  a  small  island,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Niger,  the  people 
have  some  strange  customs.  They  have  a  large  town,  of  about 
three  thousand  inhabitants ;  their  huts  are  built  within  mud  walls, 
with  the  streets  crossing  each  other  at  right  angles.  At  every 
corner  there  is  a  creature  stuck  up,  like  our  scarecrows  in  Amer- 
ica, with  a  gourd  for  a  head,  and  dressed  up  with  clothes,  shells, 
and  beads.  This  thing  is  called  Juju,  and  whatever  is  devoted  to 
it  is  sacred.  Thus  the  little  animal  called  the  Iguana  —  a  species 
of  lizard,  which  elsewhere  is  eaten  -  here  is  allowed  to  increase 
and  run  all  over  the  island.  At  one  end  of  the  town  there  is  a 
temple  dedicated  to  the  Juju.  It  is  higher  than  most  of  the  other 
houses,  with  an  arched  doorway,  the  sides  and  arch  of  which  are 
formed  of  human  skulls.  Inside  the  hut,  at  one  end,  is  a  sort  of 
sacred  altar,  that,  with  an  arched  recess  behind,  is  formed  of 
children's  skulls,  the  east  side  and  floor  being  the  skulls  of  adults. 
In  the  eye-sockets  of  each  a  square  piece  of  board  is  inserted,  first 
painted  red,  and  then  an  eye  painted  on  it.  Outside  the  door  is  a 
post  to  which  prisoners  are  tied,  and  beaten  to  death  with  clubs, 
and  then  their  skulls,  after  being  dried  and  bleached,  are  used  for 
replacing  any  that  may  have  become  cracked  or  otherwise  injured. 
There  are  three  priests  whose  business  is  to  put  prisoners  to  death, 
to  take  care  of  the  temple,  and  attend  to  the  dressing  of  the  Ju- 
jus." — BrittarCs  Every-Day  Life  in  Africa,  page  343. 


"  It  is  revenge,  as  much  as  desire  to  perpetuate  the  remem- 
brance of  victory,  which  makes  them  eager  for  the  skulls  and 
jawbones  of  their  enemies,  so  that  in  a  royal  metropolis,  walls, 
and  floors,  and  thrones,  and  walking-sticks  are  everywhere  lower- 
ing with  the  hollow  eyes  of  the  dead.  These  sad,  bare,  and 
whitened  emblems  of  mortality  and  revenge  present  a  curious  and 
startling  spectacle,  cresting  and  festooning  the  red  clay  walls 


28    SUMAN  SKULLS  AS  SACRED  RELICS  AND   ORNAMENTS. 

of  Humassi,  the  capital  of  Ashantee."  — Footers  Africa  and  the 
American  flag,  page  56. 


"  When  a  human  head  is  desired  to  be  preserved,  the  brains  are 
extracted  through  the  spinal  connection,  and  the  head  held  on  the 
end  of  a  stick  in  the  smoke  till  it  becomes  quite  hard  and  dry.  I 
have  seen  some  thousands  preserved  in  this  way  in  Dahomey." — 
Duncan's  Africa,  Vol.  II.,  page  159. 


"  Near  the  king  were  placed  several  large  staffs  or  walking- 
sticks,  with  a  skull  fixed  on  the  upper  end  of  each,  the  stick  pass- 
ing through  the  skull  so  as  to  leave  about  seven  inches  of  the  stick 
above  the  skull  for  the  hand  when  walking."  —  Duncan's  Africa, 
Vol.  I.,  page  246. 


"  The  father  of  Moyara  was  a  powerful  chief,  but  the  son  now 
sits  among  the  ruins  of  the  town,  with  four  or  five  wives  and  very 
few  people.  At  his  hamlet  a  number  of  stakes  are  planted  in  the 
ground,  and  I  counted  fifty-four  human  skulls  hung  on  their  points. 
These  were  Matebele,  who,  unable  to  approach  Sebituane  on  the 
island  of  Loyela,  had  returned  sick  and  famishing.  Moyara's 
father  took  advantage  of  their  reduced  condition,  and,  after  put- 
ting them  to  death,  mounted  their  heads  in  the  Bat  oka  fashion. 
The  old  man  who  perpetrated  this  deed  now  lies  in  the  middle  of 
his  son's  huts,  with  a  lot  of  rotten  ivory  over  his  grave.  One  can- 
not help  feeling  thankful  that  the  reign  of  such  wretches  is  over. 
They  inhabited  the  whole  of  this  side  of  the  country,  and  were 
probably  the  barrier  to  the  extension  of  the  Portuguese  commerce 
in  this  direction.  When  looking  at  these  skulls,  I  remarked  to 
Moyara  that  many  of  them  were  those  of  mere  boys.  He  assented 
readily,  and  pointed  them  out  as  such.  I  asked  why  his  father 
had  killed  boys.  '  To  show  his  fierceness,'  was  the  answer.  '  It 
is  fierceness  to  kill  boys.1  '  Yes ;  they  had  no  business  here.' 
When  I  told  him  that  this  probably  would  insure  his  own  death  if 
the  Matebele  came  again,  he  replied,  '  When  I  hear  of  their 
coming  I  shall  hide  the  bones.'  He  was  evidently  proud  of  these 
trophies  of  his  father's  ferocity,  and  I  was  assured  by  other 


BLOOD-THIRSTINESS   OF    THE   NEGROES.  29 

Batoka  that  few  strangers  ever  returned  from  a  visit  to  this 
quarter.  If  a  man  wished  to  curry  favor  with  a  Batoka  chief,  he 
ascertained  when  a  stranger  was  about  to  leave,  and  waylaid  him 
at  a  distance  from  the  town,  and  when  he  brought  his  head  back 
to  the  chief,  it  was  mounted  as  a  trophy,  the  different  chiefs  vy- 
ing with  each  other  as  to  which  should  mount  the  greatest  num- 
ber of  skulls  in  his  village." — Livingstone's  Africa,  page  569. 


CHAPTER    IV.  . 

BLOOD-THIRSTINESS  AND  BARBARITY  OF  THE  NEGROES  IN  NEGRO- 
LAND. 

"  THERE  is  apparently  in  this  people  a  physical  delight  in  cruelty 
to  beast  as  well  as  to  man.  The  sight  of  suffering  seems  to  bring 
them  an  enjoyment  without  which  the  world  is  tame.  In  almost 
all  the  towns  on  the  Oil  Rivers,  you  see  dead  or  dying  animals 
fastened  in  some  agonizing  position.  Poultry  is  most  common, 
because  cheapest ;  they  are  tied  by  the  legs,  head  downwards,  or 
lashed  round  the  body  to  a  stake  or  a  tree,  where  they  remain 
till  they  fall  in  fragments.  If  a  man  be  unwell,  he  hangs  a  live 
chicken  round  his  throat,  expecting  that  its  pain  will  abstract  from 
his  sufferings.  Goats  are  lashed  head  downwards  tightly  to 
wooden  pillars,  and  are  allowed  to  die  a  lingering  death ;  even 
the  harmless  tortoise  cannot  escape  impalement.  Blood  seems 
to  be  the  favorite  ornament  for  a  man's  face,  as  pattern-painting 
with  some  dark  color  like  indigo  is  the  proper  decoration  for  a 
woman.  At  funerals  numbers  of  goats  and  poultry  are  sacrificed 
for  the  benefit  of  the  deceased,  and  the  corpse  is  sprinkled  with 
the  warm  blood.  The  headless  trunks  are  laid  upon  the  body,  and 
if  the  fowls  flap  their  wings,  which  they  will  do  for  some  seconds 
after  decapitation,  it  is  a  good  omen  for  the  dead  .man.1' — • 
Hutchinsori's  Western  Africa,  Vol.  II. ,  page  283. 
3* 


30  BLOOD-THIRSTINESS   OF    THE   NEGROES. 

"  It  is  not  so  easy  to  offer  any  probable  reason  for  the  eagerness 
to  share  in  cruelty  which  glows  in  a  negro's  bosom.  Its  appall- 
ing character  consists  rather  in  the  amount  of  bloodshed  which 
gratifies  the  negro,  than  in  the  studious  prolongation  of  pain. 
Superstition  probably  excused  or  justified  to  him  some  of  his 
worst  practices.  Human  sacrifices  have  been  common  every- 
where. There  was  no  scruple  at  cruelty  when  it  was  convenient. 
The  mouths  of  the  victims  were  gagged  by  knives  run  through 
their  cheeks ;  and  captives  among  the  southern  tribes  were  beaten 
with  clubs  in  order  to  pi-event  resistance,  or  to  take  away  their 
strength,  that  they  might  be  more  easily  hurried  to  the  '  hill  of 
death,'  or  authorized  place  of  execution."  —  Footers  Africa  and 
the  American  Flag,  page  52. 


"  It  is  hard  to  make  them  feel  that  the  shedding  of  human  blood 
is  a  great  crime ;  they  must  be  conscious  that  it  is  wrong,  but,  hav- 
ing been  accustomed  to  bloodshed  from  infancy,  they  are  remark- 
ably callous  to  the  enormity  of  the  crime  of  destroying  human 
life." —  Livingstones  Africa, page  217. 


"  The  late  Matiamvo  sometimes  indulged  in  the  whim  of  run- 
ning a  muck  in  the  town  and  beheading  whomsoever  he  met,  until 
he  had  quite  a  heap  of  human  heads.  Matiamvo  explained  this 
conduct  by  saying  that  his  people  were  too  many,  and  he  wanted 
to  diminish  them.  He  had  absolute  power  of  life  and  death."  — 
Livingstone's  Africa,  page  341. 


"Nothing  less  than  the  entire  subjugation,  or  destruction  of  the 
vanquished,  could  quench  their  insatiable  thirst  for  power.  Thus 
when  they  conquered  a  town,  the  terrified  inhabitants  were  driven 
in  a  mass  to  the  outskirts,  when  the  parents  and  all  the  married 
women  were  slaughtered  on  the  spot.  Such  as  have  dared  to  bo 
brave  in  the  defence  of  their  town,  their  wives,  and  their  children, 
are  reserved  for  a  still  more  terrible  death  ;  dry  grass,  saturated 
with  fat,  is  tied  round  their  naked  bodies  and  then  set  on  fire. 
The  youths  and  girls  are  loaded  as  beasts  of  burden  with  the 
spoils  of  the  town,  to  be  marched  to  the  homes  of  their  victors. 


BLOOD-THIRSTINESS   OF  THE  NEGROES.  31 

If  the  town  be  in  an  isolated  position,  the  helpless  infants  are  left 
.  to  perish  either  with  hunger,  or  to  be  devoured  by  beasts  of  prey. 
On  such  an  event,  the  lions  scent  the  slain  and  leave  their  lair. 
The  hyenas  and  jackals  emerge  from  their  lurking-places  in  broad 
day,  and  revel  in  the  carnage,  while  a  cloud  of  vultures  may  be 
seen  descending  on  the  living  and  the  dead,  and  holding  a  carni- 
val on  human  flesh."  —  Moffatfs  Africa,  page  365. 


"We  found  the  criminals  seated  on  blocks  of  wood,  in  a  street 
near  the  king's  residence,  each  accompanied  by  an  executioner. 
One  of  the  executioners  was  the  lad  who  told  me,  on  the  17th  of 
December,  that  he  had  himself  decapitated  eighty  persons.  Two 
knives  were  forced  through  the  cheeks  of  each  criminal,  one  on 
each  side,  which  deprived  them  of  speech.  This  is  done,  it  is  said, 
to  prevent  them  cursing  the  king.  We  did  not  stop  to  gaze  on  the 
horrid  spectacle."  —  Freeman's  Africa,  page  164. 


"  When  any  one  of  these  chiefs  dies,  the  news  of  his  death  is  not 
made  known  for  one  or  two  months  afterwards ;  and  if  any  person 
who  has  learned  the  fact  of  his  death  discloses  the  secret,  he  is 
immediately  decapitated,  and  his  family  and  relatives  sold  into  cap- 
tivity. If  there  be  no  purchasers  for  them,  they  are  all  conducted 
to  the  banks  of  the  river,  and  there  decapitated  by  the  Samba  Go- 
lambole,  or  common  executioner;  the  bodies  are  then  thrown  into 
the  river,  and  the  heads  are  piled  up  at  the  entrance  to  the  capital, 
as  a  warning  to  all  disclosers  of  state  secrets."  —  Valdez's  Africa, 
Vol.  II.,pageZ§\. 


"  The  head  and  legs  of  the  ox  were  then  drawn  together,  and  it 
fell  bellowing  to  the  ground.  The  animal  was  now  secured  firmly, 
and  prevented  from  rising.  The  chief  butcher  then,  with  a  large 
knife,  cut  open  about  a  foot  of  the  skin  of  the  belly ;  and  lying  on 
the  ground,  amidst  the  groans  of  agony  and  helpless  struggles  of 
the  unfortunate  brute,  he  thrust  his  right  arm  up  to  the  shoulder 
into  the  ox,  gave  a  twist  and  a  pull  at  the  heart,  ruptured  one  of 
the  large  arteries,  and  drew  away  the  omentum,  which  was  thrown 


82  BLOOD-THIRSTINESS  OF  THE  NEGROES. 

on  a  fire,  cooked  and  eaten,  before  the  convulsions  of  the  victim 
had  ceased."  —  Alexander's  Africa,  Vol.  II.,  page  132. 


"  The  guide,  attached  to  the  expedition  on  return  from  Ujiji, 
had  loitered  behind  for  some  days,  because  his  slave  girl  was  too 
footsore  to  walk.  When  tired  of  waiting  he  cut  off  her  her  head, 
for  fear  lest  she  should  become  gratis  another  man's  property. 
—  Burton's  Africa,  page  515. 


"  Tembandumba,  the  Amazonian  and  cannibal  queen  of  Congo, 
commanded  that  all  male  children,  all  twins,  and  all  infants  whose 
upper  teeth  appeared  before  their  lower  ones,  should  be  killed  by 
their  own  mothers.  From  their  bodies  an  ointment  should  be 
made  in  the  way  which  she  would  show.  The  female  children 
should  be  reared  and  instructed  in  war;  and  male  prisoners, 
before  being  killed  and  eaten,  should  be  used  for  purposes  of  pro- 
creation, so  that  there  might  be  no  future  lack  of  female  warriors. 
Having  concluded  her  harangue,  with  the  publication  of  other  laws 
of  minor  importance,  this  young  woman  seized  her  child  which 
was  feeding  at  her  breast,  flung  him  into  a  mortar,  and  pounded 
him  to  a  pulp.  She  flung  this  into  a  large  earthen  pot,  adding 
roots,  leaves,  and  oils,  and  made  the  whole  into  an  ointment,  with 
which  she  rubbed  herself  before  them  all,  telling  them  that  this 
would  render  her  invulnerable,  and  that  now  she  could  subdue  the 
universe.  Immediately  her  subjects,  seized  with  a  savage  enthu- 
siasm, massacred  all  their  male  children,  and  immense  quantities 
of  this  human  ointment  were  made.  .  .  .  It  is  clear  enough 
that  Tembandumba  wished  to  found  an  empire  of  Amazons,  such 
as  we  read  of  as  existing  among  the  Scythians,  in  the  forests  of 
South  America,  and  in  Central  Africa.  She  not  only  enjoined  the 
massacre  of  male  children,  —  she  forbade  the  eating  of  woman's 
flesh.  But  she  had  to  conquer  an  instinct  in  order  to  carry  out 
her  views ;  she  fought  against  nature,  and  in  time  she  was  sub- 
dued." —  Readers  Savage  Africa,  page  292. 


"On  our  march  to  the  market-place  we  passed  along  part  of 
the  walls  of  the  palace,  which  covers  an  immense  space.    The 


BLOOD-THIRSTINESS  OF  THE  NEGROES.  33 

walls  as  well  as  houses  are  made  of  red,  sandy  clay,  and 
on  top  of  the  walls,  at  intervals  of  thirty  feet,  human  skulls  were 
placed  along  their  whole  extent.  On  approaching  nearer  the 
market-place  we  beheld,  on  an  elevated  pole,  a  man  fixed  in  an 
upright  position,  with  a  basket  on  his  head,  apparently  holding  it 
with  both  hands.  A  little  further  on  we  saw  two  more  men,  now 
in  a  state  of  decomposition,  hung  by  the  feet  from  a  thick  pole, 
placed  horizontally  on  two  upright  poles  about  twenty  feet  high. 
Passing  close  to  them  the  smell  was  intolerable.  The  arms  hung 
extended  downwards,  and  at  a  little  distance  a  stranger  would 
(from  their  shrivelled  and  contracted  condition)  suppose  them  to 
be  large  sheep  or  goats;  the  skin,  from  exposure,  had  turned 
nearly  to  the  color  of  that  of  a  white  man.  I  found,  upon  inquiry, 
that  the  bodies  had  been  in  this  position  about  two  and  a  half 
moons.  All  reckoning  here  is  by  the  moon.  The  vulture  was  in- 
dustriously endeavoring  to  satisfy  his  appetite,  but  the  heat  of  the 
sun  had  dried  the  skin  so  as  to  render  it  impenetrable  to  his  efforts. 
On  the  opposite  side  of  the  market  were  two  more  human  bodies 
in  the  same  position  as  those  I  have  just  mentioned,  with  the  ex- 
ception that  the  bodies  had  been  mutilated."  —  Duncan's  Africa, 
Vol.  L,  page  219. 


"I  have  already  spoken  of  the  system  of  intermarriages,  by 
which  a  chief  gains  in  power  and  friends.  But  there  are  other 
means  of  securing  allies.  For  instance,  two  tribes  are  anxious  for 
a  fight,  but  one  needs  more  force.  This  weakling  sends  one  of 
its  men  secretly  to  kill  a  man  or  woman  of  some  village  living 
near,  but  having  no  share  in  the  quarrel.  The  consequence  is,  not, 
as  would  seem  most  reasonable,  that  this  last  village  take  its  re- 
venge on  the  murderer,  but,  strangely  enough,  that  the  murder- 
er's people  give  them  to  understand  that  this  is  done  because 
another  tribe  has  insulted  them ;  whereupon,  according  to  African 
custom,  the  two  villages  join,  and  together  march  upon  the  enemy. 
In  effect,  to  gain  a  village  to  a  certain  side  in  a  quarrel,  that  side 
murders  one  of  its  men  or  women,  with  a  purpose  of  retaliation 
on  somebody  else."  — Du  Cliaillufs  Equatorial  Africa,  page  74. 


"  Sali  showed  extreme  folly  in  remaining  behind,  andKamrasi, 


34  BLOOD-THIRSTINESS   OF  THE  NEGROES. 

suspicious  of  his  complicity,  immediately  ordered  him  to  be  seized 
and  cut  to  pieces ;  he  was  accordingly  tied  to  a  stake,  and  tortured 
by  having  his  limbs  cut  off  piecemeal, — the  hands  being  first 
severed  at  the  wrists,  and  the  arms  at  the  elbow-joints." —• 
Baker's  Great  Basin  of  the  Nile,  page  406. 


"  A  number  of  old  women  had  been  taken  in  the  general  slave 
hunt ;  these  could  not  walk  sufficiently  fast  to  keep  up  with  their 
victors  during  the  return  march ;  they  had  accordingly  all  been 
killed  on  the  road,  as  being  cumbersome.  In  every  case  they  were 
killed  by  being  beaten  on  the  back  of  the  neck  with  a  club."  — 
Baker's  Great  Basin  of  the  Nile,  page  405. 


"  Amarar  called  his  soothsayer,  and  required  him  to  name  a 
propitious  moment  for  the  sally.  The  oracle  retired  to  his  den, 
and,  after  suitable  incantations,  declared  that  the  effort  should  be 
made  as  soon  as  the  hands  of  Amarar  were  stained  in  the  blood 
of  his  own  son.  It  is  said  that  the  prophet  intended  the  victim  to 
be  a  youthful  son  of  Amarar,  who  had  joined  his  mother's  family, 
and  was  then  distant ;  but  the  impatient  and  superstitious  savage, 
seeing  a  child  of  his  own,  two  years  old,  at  hand,  when  the  oracle 
announced  the  decree,  snatched  the  infant  from  his  mother's  arms, 
threw  it  into  a  rice  mortar,  and,  with  a  pestle,  mashed  it  to  death. 
The  sacrifice  over,  a  sortie  was  ordered.  The  infuriate  and  starv- 
ing savages,  roused  by  the  oracle  and  inflamed  by  the  bloody 
scene,  rushed  forth  tumultuously.  Amarar,  armed  with  the 
pestle,  still  warm  and  reeking  with  his  infant's  blood,  was  fore- 
most in  the  onset.  The  besiegers  gave  way  and  fled ;  the  town 
was  re-provisioned ;  the  fortifications  of  the  enemy  demolished ; 
and  the  soothsayer  rewarded  with  a  slave  for  his  barbarous  pre- 
diction !  At  another  time,  Amarar  was  on  the  point  of  attacking 
a  strongly  fortified  town,  when  doubts  were  intimated  of  success. 
Again  the  wizard  was  consulted,  when  the  mysterious  oracle  de- 
clared that  the  chief  "  could  not  conquer  till  he  returned  once  more  to 
his  mother's  womb  ! "  That  night  Amara  committed  the  blackest 
of  incests;  but  his  party  was  repulsed,  and  the  false  prophet 
stoned  to  death."  —  Canofs  Twenty  Tears  of  an  African  Slaver, 
page  333. 


BLOOD-THIRSTINESS  OF  THE  NEGROES.  35 

"It  was  not  long  after  my  instalment  at  Cape  Mount,  that  I 
accidentally  witnessed  the  ferocity  of  the  chief.  Some  trifling 
country  affair  caused  me  to  visit  the  king ;  but,  upon  landing  at 
Toso,  I  was  told  he  was  abroad.  The  manner  of  my  informant, 
however,  satisfied  me  that  the  message  was  untrue ;  and  accord- 
ingly, with  the  usual  confidence  of  a  white  man  in  Africa,  I 
searched  his  premises  till  I  encountered  him  in  the  palaver-house. 
The  large  inclosure  was  crammed  with  a  mob  of  savages,  all  in 
perfect  silence  around  the  king,  who,  in  an  infuriate  manner,  with 
a  bloody  knife  in  his  hand,  and  a  foot  on  the  dead  body  of  a 
negro,  was  addressing  the  carcass.  By  his  side  stood  a  pot  of 
hissing  oil,  in  which  the  heart  of  his  enemy  was  frying !  My  sud- 
den and,  perhaps,  improper  entrance  seemed  to  exasperate  the 
infidel,  who,  calling  me  to  his  side,  knelt  on  the  corpse,  and  dig- 
ging it  repeatedly  with  his  knife,  exclaimed,  with  trembling 
passion,  that  it  was  his  bitterest  and  oldest  foe.  For  twenty 
years  he  had  butchered  his  people,  sold  his  subjects,  violated  his 
daughters,  slain  his  sons,  and  burnt  his  towns ;  —  and  with  each 
charge,  the  savage  enforced  his  assertion  by  a  stab."  —  Canofs 
Twenty  Years  of  an  African  Slaver,  page  432. 


"  By  degrees  the  warriors  dropped  in  around  their  chieftain. 
A  palaver-house,  immediately  in  front  of  my  quarters,  was  the 
general  rendezvous ;  and  scarcely  a  bushman  appeared  without 
the  body  of  some  maimed  and  bleeding  victim.  The  mangled 
but  living  captives  were  tumbled  on  a  heap  in  the  centre,  and 
soon  every  avenue  to  the  square  was  crowded  with  exulting 
savages.  Rum  was  brought  forth  iu  Abundance  for  the  chiefs. 
Presently,  slowly  approaching  from  a  distance,  I  heard  the  drums, 
horns,  and  war-bells ;  and,  in  less  than  fifteen  minutes,  a  proces- 
sion of  women,  whose  naked  limbs  were  smeared  with  chalk  and 
ochre,  poured  into  the  palaver-house  to  join  the  beastly  rites. 
Each  of  these  devils  was  armed  with  a  knife,  and  bore  in  her 
hand  some  cannibal  trophy.  Jen-Ken's  wife,  —  a  corpulent  wench 
of  forty-five,  —  dragged  along  the  ground,  by  a  single  limb,  the 
slimy  corpse  of  an  infant  ripped  alive  from  its  mother's  womb. 
As  her  eyes  met  those  of  her  husband,  the  two  fiends  yelled  forth 
a  shout  of  mutual  joy,  while  the  lifeless  babe  was  tossed  in  the 
air  and  caught  as  jt  descended  on  the  point  of  a  spear.  Then 


36  BLOOD-THIRSTINESS  OF  THE  NEGROES. 

came  the  refreshment,  in  the  shape  of  rum,  powder,  and  blood, 
which  was  quaffed  by  the  brutes  till  they  reeled  off,  with  linked 
hands,  in  a  wild  dance  around  the  pile  of  victims.  As  the  women 
leaped  and  sang,  the  men  applauded  and  encouraged.  Soon  the 
ring  was  broken,  and,  with  a  yell,  each  female  leaped  on  the 
body  of  a  wounded  prisoner,  and  commenced  the  final  sacrifice 
with  the  mockery  of  lascivious  embraces. 

In  my  wanderings  in  African  forests,  I  have  often  seen  the 
tiger  pounce  upon  its  prey,  and,  with  instinctive  thirst,  satiate  its 
appetite  for  blood  and  abandon  the  drained  corpse;  but  these 
African  negresses  were  neither  as  decent  nor  as  merciful  as  the 
beast  of  the  wilderness.  Their  malignant  pleasure  seemed  to 
consist  in  the  invention  of  tortures,  that  would  agonize  but  not 
slay.  There  was  a  devilish  spell  in  the  tragic  scene  that  fascinat- 
ed my  eyes  to  the  spot.  A  slow,  lingering,  tormenting  mutilation 
was  practised  on  the  living,  as  well  as  on  the  dead ;  and,  in  every 
instance,  the  brutality  of  the  women  exceeded  that  of  the  men. 
I  cannot  picture  the  hellish  joy  with  which  they  passed  from  body 
to  body,  digging  out  eyes,  wrenching  off  lips,  tearing  the  ears, 
and  slicing  the  flesh  from  the  quivering  bones ;  while  the  queen 
of  the  harpies  crept  amid  the  butchery,  gathering  the  brains  from 
each  severed  skull  as  a  dainty  dish  for  the  approaching  feast ! 

After  the  last  victim  yielded  his  life,  it  did  not  require  long  to 
kindle  a  fire,  produce  the  requisite  utensils,  and  fill  the  air  with 
the  odor  of  human  flesh.  Yet,  before  the  various  messes  were 
half  broiled,  every  mouth  was  tearing  the  delicate  morsels  with 
shouts  of  joy,  denoting  the  combined  satisfaction  of  revenge  and 
appetite !  In  the  midst  of  this  appalling  scene,  I  heard  a  fresh 
cry  of  exultation,  as  a  pole  was  borne  into  the  apartment,  on 
which  was  impaled  the  living  body  of  the  conquered  chieftain's 
wife.  A  hole  was  quickly  dug,  the  stave  planted,  and  fagots 
supplied ;  but  before  a  fire  could  be  kindled,  the  wretched  woman 
was  dead,  so  that  the  barbarians  were  defeated  in  their  hellish 
scheme  of  burning  her  alive. 

I  do  not  know  how  long  these  brutalities  lasted,  for  I  remember 
very  little  after  this  last  attempt,  except  that  the  bushmen  packed 
in  plaintain  leaves  whatever  flesh  was  left  from  the  orgy,  to  be 
conveyed  to  their  friends  in  the  forest.  This  was  the  firct  time  it 
had  been  my  lot  to  behold  the  most  savage  development  of 
African  nature  upder  the  stimulus  of  war.  Th,e  butchery  madu 


SLAVERY  AND  SLAVE-TRADE  IN  NEQROLAND.  37 

me  sick,  dizzy,  paralyzed.  I  sank  on  the  earth  benumbed  with 
stupor;  nor  was  I  aroused  till  nightfall,  when  my  Kroomen  bore 
me  to  the  conqueror's  town,  and  negotiated  our  redemption  for 
the  value  of  twenty  slaves." —  Canofa  Twenty  Years  of  an  African 
Slaver,  pages  384-386. 


CHAPTER    V. 

SLAVERY  AND  THE  SLAVE-TRADE  IN  NEGROLAND. 

"!T  seems  quite  natural  that  every  one,  even  the  most  thought- 
less barbarian,  would  feel  at  least  some  slight  emotion  on  being 
exiled  from  his  native  country,  and  enslaved.  But  so  far  is  this 
from  being  the  case,  that  Africans,  generally  speaking,  betray 
the  most  perfect  indifference  on  losing  their  liberty,  and  being  de- 
prived of  their  relatives ;  while  love  of  country  is  seemingly  as 
great  a  stranger  to  their  breasts  as  social  tenderness  and  domes- 
tic affection."  —  Lander's  Travels  in  Africa,  Vol.  II.,  page  208. 


"The  reader  must  bear  in  mind  that  my  observations  apply 
chiefly  to  persons  of  free  condition,  who  constitute,  I  suppose, 
not  more  than  one-fourth  part  of  the  inhabitants  at  large ;  the 
other  three-fourths  are  in  a  state  of  hopeless  and  hereditary 
slavery." — Mungo  Park's  1st  Journal,  page  32. 


"Large  families  are  very  often  exposed  to  absolute  want,  and, 
as  the  parents  have  almost  unlimited  authority  over  their  children, 
it  frequently  happens,  in  all  parts  of  Africa,  that  some  of  the  lat- 
ter are  sold  to  purchase  provisions  for  the  rest  of  the  family." — 
Mungo  Park's  1st  Journal,  page  216. 


''Every  evening  I  observed  five  or  six  women  come  to  the 
4 


38  SLA  VER T  AND  SLA  VE-TRADE  IN  NEGROLAND. 

mansa's  house,  and  receive  each  of  them  a  cei'tain  quantity  of 
corn.  As  I  knew  how  valuable  this  article  was  at  this  juncture, 
I  inquired  of  the  mansa  whether  he  maintained  those  poor  women 
from  pure  bounty,  or  whether  he  expected  a  return  when  the  har- 
vest should  be  gathered  in.  '  Observe  that  boy,'  said  he,  point- 
ing to  a  fine  child  about  five  years  of  age  ;  '  his  mother  has  sold 
him  to  me  for  forty  days'  provision  for  herself  and  the  rest  of  her 
family;  I  have  bought  another  boy  in  the  same  manner."  —  Mun- 
go  Park's  Travels  in  Africa,  page  116. 


"The  slave-market  is  held  in  two  long  sheds,  one  for  males,  the 
other  for  females,  where  they  are  seated  in  rows,  and  carefully 
decked  out  for  the  exhibition  ;  the  owner  or  one  of  his  trusty  slaves 
sitting  near  them.  Young  or  old,  plump  or  withered,  beautiful 
or  ugly,  are  sold  without  distinction ;  but,  in  other  respects,  the 
buyer  inspects  them  with  the  utmost  attention,  and  somewhat  in 
the  same  manner  as  a  volunteer  seaman  is  examined  by  a  surgeon 
on  entering  the  navy ;  he  looks  at  the  tongue,  teeth,  eyes,  and 
limbs,  and  endeavors  to  detect  rupture  by  a  forced  cough.  .  .  . 
Slavery  is  here  so  common,  or  the  mind  of  slaves  is  so  constitu- 
ted, that  they  always  appeared  much  happier  than  their  masters ; 
the  women,  especially,  singing  with  the  greatest  glee  all  the  time 
they  are  at  work." —  Clappertori's  Africa,  Vol.  IV., page  36. 


"The  whole  population  of  Katunga  may  be  considered  in  a 
state  of  slavery,  either  to  the  king  or  his  caboceers."  —  Clapper- 
ton's  Africa,  Vol.  IV.,  page  211. 


"  They  had  nearly  a  hundred  slaves,  the  greater  part  female, 
and  girls  of  from  twelve  to  eighteen  years  of  age,  some  of  them 
from  Nyfee,  and  still  further  to  the  West,  of  a  deep  copper  color, 
and  beautifully  formed;  but  few  of  these  were  ironed.  The 
males,  who  were  mostly  young,  were  linked  together  in  couples 
by  iron  rings  around  their  legs ;  yet  they  laughed,  and  seemed  in 
good  condition."  —  DenJiam  &  Clappertori's  Africa,  Vol.  IL,  page 
134. 


SLAVERY  AND  SLAVE-TRADE  IN  NEGROLAND.  39 

"  Slaves  in  Africa  are  in  proportion  to  the  freemen  of  about 
three  to  one ;  but,  although  the  number  of  individuals  reduced  to 
a  state  of  bondage  by  the  operation  of  the  above  causes,  and  the 
destruction  created,  both  as  regards  life  and  property,  is  im- 
mense, the  whole  combined  are  but  as  a  single  grain  of  dust  in 
the  balance,  when  compared  with  the  slavery,  the  destitution,  and 
the  desolation,  that  are  daily  entailed  by  the  unceasing  bloody 
struggles  betwixt  state  and  state.  Towns  and  villages  are  then 
obliterated  from  the  face  of  the  earth ;  and  thousands  upon  thou- 
sands of  the  population,  of  whatever  age  or  sex,  are  hurried  into 
hopeless  captivity."  —  Harris's  Adventures  in  Africa,  page  314. 


"Crime,  necessity  arising  from  distress,  insolvency,  the  inhu- 
manity of  a  harsh  creditor,  a  spirit  of  retaliation  in  petty  disputes, 
and  the  sordid  love  of  gain,  for  which  parents  will  even  sell  then- 
own  children,  severally  assist  in  feeding  the  demand  for  slaves,  — 
the  law  of  every  African  state  either  tolerating  or  directly  sanc- 
tioning the  evil."  —  Harrises  Adventures  in  Africa,  page  314. 


"  Not  even  the  appearance  of  affection  exists  between  husband 
and  wife,  or  between  parents  and  children.  So  little  do  they  care 
for  their  offspring,  that  many  offered  to  sell  me  any  of  their  sons 
or  daughters  as  slaves.  They  are,  to  speak  the  truth,  in  point  of 
parental  affection,  inferior  to  brutes."  —  Duncan's  Africa,  Vol.  I., 
page  79. 


"  A  slave  in  Gabun  was  once  asked  why  he  did  not  take  the 
money,  which  he  was  known  to  have  accumulated,  and  ransom 
himself.  His  reply  was,  '  I  have  as  much  freedom  as  I  want, 
and  I  prefer  to  buy  a  slave  to  wait  upon  me.' "  —  Wilson's  Africa, 
page  272. 


"  The  liability  to  fall  into  a  condition  of  servitude  is  not  so 
frightful  in  Africa  as  it  is  where  there  is  a  higher  appreciation  of 
personal  liberty;  nor  does  the  same  odium  attach  to  the  term 
slave  as  is  attached  to  it  among  civilized  men.  The  African  sees 


40  SLA  VER T  AND  SLA  VE-TRADE  IN  NEGROLAND. 

very  little  difference  between  the  authority  exercised  over  him  by 
one  whom  he  acknowledges  as  his  master  and  the  petty  tyranny 
which  is  exercised  by  most  African  chiefs  over  their  subjects ;  and 
so  long  as  he  is  worked  moderately,  and  treated  kindly,  he  has 
but  little  cause  for  dissatisfaction,  and  not  infrequently  by  his 
own  choice  places  himself  in  this  condition." — Wilson's  Africa, 
page  156. 


"  Slavery  exists  on  an  immense  scale  in  Adamawa,  and  there 
are  many  private  individuals  who  have  more  than  a  thousand 
slaves.  The  only  articles  of  export  at  present  are  slaves  and 
ivory.1"  —  Earth's  Africa,  Vol.  II.,  page  190. 


44  With  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade  all  along  the  northern 
and  south-western  coast  of  Africa,  slaves  will  cease  to  be  brought 
down  to  the  coast,  and  in  this  way  a  great  deal  of  the  mischief 
and  misery  necessarily  resulting  from  this  inhuman  traffic  will  be 
cut  off.  But  this,  unfortunately,  forms  only  a  small  part  of  the 
evil.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  most  horrible  topic  connected 
with  slavery  is  slave-hunting;  and  this  is  earned  on,  not  only 
for  the  purpose  of  supplying  the  foreign  market,  but,  in  a  far  more 
extensive  degree,  for  supplying  the  wants  of  domestic  slavery." 
—  Earth's  Africa,  Vol.  I.,  page  12. 


"  A  large  number  of  slaves  had  been  caught  this  day,  and  in 
the  course  of  the  evening,  after  some  skirmishing,  in  which  three 
Bonu  horsemen  were  killed,  a  great  many  others  were  brought 
in ;  altogether  they  were  said  to  have  taken  one  thousand,  and 
there  were  certainly  not  less  than  five  hundred.  To  our  utmost 
horror,  not  less  than  one  hundred  and  seventy  full-grown  men 
were  mercilessly  slaughtered  in  cold  blood,  the  greater  part  of 
them  being  allowed  to  bleed  to  death,  a  leg  having  been  severed 
from  the  body."  —  Earth's  Africa,  Vol.  II.,  page  369. 


"  In  times  of  necessity,  a  man  will  part  with  his  parents,  wives, 
and  children,  and  when  they  fail,  he  will  sell  himself  without 


SLAVERY  AND  SLAVE-TRADE  IN  NEGROLAND.  41 

shame.  As  has  been  observed  among  inany  tribes  the  uncle  has 
a  right  to  dispose  of  his  nephews  and  nieces."  —  Burton's  Africa, 
page  515. 


"  The  busiest  scene  is  the  slave -market,  composed  of  two  long 
ranges  of  sheds,  one  for  males  and  another  for  females.  These 
poor  creatures  are  seated  in  rows,  decked  out  for  exhibition ;  the 
buyer  scrutinizes  them  as  nicely  as  a  purchaser  with  us  does  a 
horse,  inspecting  the  tongue,  teeth,  eyes,  and  limbs,  making  them 
cough  and  perform  various  movements,  to  ascertain  if  there  be 
anything  unsound."  — Murray's  African  Discoveries,  page  164. 


"  The  good  qualities  given  to  the  negro  by  the  bounty  of  nature, 
have  served  only  to  make  him  a  slave,  trodden  down  by  every 
remorseless  foot,  and  to  brand  him  for  ages  with  the  epithet  of 
outcast;  the  marked  unceasing  proof  of  a  curse,  as  old  as  the 
origin  of  society,  not  even  deserving  human  forbearance !  And 
true  it  is,  that  the  worst  slavery  is  his  lot,  even  at  home,  for  he  is 
there  exposed  to  the  constant  peril  of  becoming  also  a  victim, 
slaughtered  with  the  most  revolting  torments.  Tyrant  of  his 
blood,  he  traffics  in  slavery  as  it  were  merchandise  ;  makes  war 
purposely  to  capture  neighbors,  and  sell  even  his  own  wives  and 
children."  —  Smith's  Natural  History  of  the  Human  Species,  page 
197. 


"  One  method  of  procuring  slaves  is  by  women  who  are  main- 
tained for  the  express  purpose  of  ensnaring  the  unsuspecting  with 
their  blandishments,  and  who  carry  on  their  infamous  trade  with 
the  connivance  of  their  husbands,  who  frequently  bestow  upon 
them  a  portion  of  the  fine  or  damages  imposed,  as  a  reward  for 
their  successful  enterprise,  and  an  encouragement  for  future  infi- 
delity. These  harpies  being  very  industrious  in  their  vocation, 
and  being  ably  seconded  by  the  ungovernable  passions  of  men 
living  in  a  state  of  nature,  consign  a  numerous  body  of  victims  to 
bondage.  Superstition,  and  the  tricks  and  impostures  of  the 
priests,  or  fetichmen,  contribute  also  their  quota  of  slaves.  The 
numerous  and  expensive  observances  which  these  prescribed,  to 
4* 


42  SLAVERY  AND   SLAVE-TRADE  IX  NEGROLAND. 

be  observed  with  the  view  of  avoiding  or  alleviating  some  calam- 
ity, often  oblige  the  applicant  for  priestly  comfort  to  part 
with  one  half  of  his  family,  to  secure  a  blessing  for  the  other. 
Even  death,  which  might  be  supposed  calculated  to  terminate 
the  family  responsibility,  becomes  an  active  enslaver,  on  ac- 
count of  the  expensive  obsequies  which  it  is  considered  the 
chief  point  of  honor  to  perform."  —  Cruickshank's  Africa,  Vol.  I., 
page  326. 


"  The  whole  system  of  slave-holding  by  the  Arabs  in  Africa,  or 
rather  on  the  coast,  or  at  Zanzibar,  is  exceedingly  strange,  for  the 
slaves,  both  in  individual  physical  strength  and  in  numbers,  are  so 
superior  to  the  Arab  foreigners,  that  if  they  chose  to  rebel,  they 
might  send  the  Arabs  flying  out  of  the  land.  It  happens,  how- 
ever, that  they  are  spellbound,  not  knowing  their  strength  any 
more  than  domestic  animals."  —  Speke's  Africa,  page  26. 


"  On  arrival  at  the  desired  locality,  the  slave-traders  disembark 
and  proceed  into  the  interior  until  they  arrive  at  the  village  of 
some  negro  chief,  with  whom  they  establish  an  intimacy.  Charmed 
with  his  new  friends,  the  power  of  whose  weapons  he  acknowl- 
edges, the  negro  chief  does  not  neglect  the  opportunity  of  seeking 
their  alliance  to  attack  a  hostile  neighbor.  Marching  throughout 
the  night,  guided  by  their  negro  hosts,  they  bivouac  within  an 
hour's  march  of  the  unsuspecting  village  doomed  to  an  attack 
about  half  an  hour  before  break  of  day.  The  time  arrives,  and, 
quietly  surrounding  the  village,  while  its  occupants  are  still  sleep- 
ing, they  fire  the  grass  huts  in  all  directions,  and  pour  volleys  of 
musketry  through  the  flaming  thatch.  Panic-stricken,  the  unfor- 
tunate victims  rush  from  their  burning  dwellings,  and  the  men  are 
shot  down  like  pheasants  in  a  battue,  while  the  women  and  chil- 
dren, bewildered  in  the  danger  and  confusion,  are  kidnapped  and 
secured.  The  herds  of  cattle,  still  within  their  kraal,  or  "  zareeba," 
are  easily  disposed  of,  and  are  driven  off  with  great  rejoicing,  as 
the  prize  of  victory.  The  women  and  children  are  then  fastened 
together,  the  former  secured  in  an  instrument  called  a  sheba, 
made  of  a  forked  pole,  the  neck  of  the  prisoner  fitting  into  the 
fork,  secured  by  a  cross-piece  lashed  behind,  while  the  wrists, 


SLAVERY  AND   SLAVE-TRADE  IN  NEGROLAND.  43 

brought  together  in  advance  of  the  body,  are  tied  to  the  pole. 
The  children  are  then  fastened  by  their  necks  with  a  rope  attached 
to  the  women,  and  thus  form  a  living  chain,  in  which  order  they 
are  marched  to  the  head-quarters  in  company  with  the  captured 
herds.  This  is  the  commencement  of  business.  Should  there  be 
ivory  in  any  of  the  huts  not  destroyed  by  the  fire,  it  is  appropri- 
ated ;  a  general  plunder  takes  place.  The  trader's  party  dig  up 
the  floors  of  the  hut  to  search  for  iron  hoes,  which  are  generally 
thus  concealed,  as  the  greatest  treasure  of  the  negroes;  the 
granaries  are  overturned  and  wantonly  destroyed,  and  the  hands 
are  cut  off  the  bodies  of  the  slain,  the  more  easily  to  detach  the 
copper  and  iron  bracelets  that  are  usually  worn."  —  Baker's  Great 
Basin  of  the  Nile,  page  13. 


"  The  Cassangas,  the  Banhuns,  and  all  the  other  neighboring 
tribes  and  nations,  punish  all  crimes  by  perpetual  banishment. 
In  such  cases  they  consider  it  more  advantageous  to  dispose  of 
their  convicts  by  selling  them  to  strangers  than  to  bear  the  burthen 
of  their  support.  Thus  they  reap  a  rich  harvest  themselves,  and, 
at  the  same  time,  encourage  that  detestable  traffic,  the  slave-trade. 
To  such  an  extent,  indeed,  does  their  cupidity  lead  them,  that 
they  outrage  all  the  laws  of  justice  and  humanity.  When  any 
person  comes  under  the  lash  of  their  sanguinary  laws,  he  himself 
is  not  alone  exposed  to  punishment,  but  his  Avhole  family  is  in- 
volved in  ruin  along  with  him."  —  Voided  s  Africa,  Vol.  I.,  page  293. 


"A  few  days  after  my  arrival  at  Timbuctoo  I  fell  in  with  a 
negro,  who  was  parading  about  the  streets  two  women,  whom  I 
recollected  to  have  been  fellow-passengers  with  me  on  board  the 
canoe.  These  women  were  not  young,  but  their  master,  to  give 
them  the  appearance  of  an  age  better  suited  to  the  market,  had 
dressed  them  well.  They  wore  fine  white  handkerchiefs,  large 
gold  ear-rings,  and  each  had  two  or  three  necklaces  of  the  same 
metal.  When  I  passed  them,  they  looked  at  me,  and  smiled. 
They  did  not  appear  in  the  least  mortified  at  being  exhibited  in 
streets  for  sale,  but  manifested  an  indifference,  which  I  could  easily 
enough  account  for  by  the  state  of  degradation  to  which  they  had 


4$  SLAVERY  AND   SLAVE-TRADE   IN  NEGROLAND. 

been  reduced  and  their  total  ignorance  of  the  natural  rights  of 
mankind." —  CaU.lie's  Africa,  Vol.  II,,  page  63. 


"  No  better  illustration  could  be  given  of  the  way  in  which  the 
slave  system  has  ingrafted  itself  upon  the  life  and  policy  of  these 
tribes  than  this,  that,  from  the  sea-shore  to  the  farthest  point  in  the 
interior  which  I  was  able  to  reach,  the  commercial  unit  of  value 
is  a  slave.  As  we  say  dollar,  as  the  English  say  pound  sterling, 
so  these  Africans  say  slave.  If  a  man  is  fined  for  an  offence,  he 
is  mulcted  in  so  many  slaves.  If  he  is  bargaining  for  a  wife,  he 
contracts  to  give  so  many  slaves  for  her.  Perhaps  he  has  no  slaves ; 
but  he  has  ivory  or  trade-goods,  and  pays  of  these  the  value  of 
so  many  slaves,  —  that  is  to  say,  as  much  ivory  or  ebony,  or  bar- 
wood,  or  the  amount  in  trade-goods  which  would,  in  that  precise 
place,  buy  so  many  slaves."  —  Du  Chaillu's  Equatorial  Africa, 
page  380. 

"  High  prices  are  a  great  temptation  to  the  cupidity  of  the  Af- 
rican, who,  having,  by  custom,  rights  of  property  in  his  children, 
often  does  not  hesitate  to  sell  these  where  other  produce  is  lacking. 
He  finds  that  one  of  his  children  is  not  bright,  that  it  has  no  sense, 
or  that  it  wants  to  bewitch  the  father.  Then  a  consultation  en- 
sues with  the  relatives  of  the  mother ;  they  are  promised  a  share 
in  the  produce  of  the  sale,  —  for  they  have  rights  also  in  the 
child,  —  and,  when  they  are  brought  to  consent,  the  unhappy 
chDd  is  sold  off."  —  Du  Chaillu's  Equatorial  Africa,  page  381. 

"  It  would  be  a  task  of  many  pages,  if  I  attempted  to  give  a  full 
account  of  the  origin  and  causes  of  slavery  in  Africa.  As  a  na- 
tional institution,  it  seems  to  have  existed  always.  Africans  have 
been  bondsmen  everywhere,  and  the  oldest  monuments  bear  their 
images  linked  with  menial  toils  and  absolute  servitude.  .  .  . 
Man,  in  truth,  has  become  the  coin  of  Africa,  and  the  legal  tender 
of  a  brutal  trade.  .  .  .  Five-sixths  of  the  population  are  in 
chains." —  Canot's  Twenty  Tears  of  the  African  Slaver,  page  126. 


SUPERSTITION  AND    WITCHCRAFT  IN  NEGROLAND.        45 

CHAPTER    VI. 

HEATHENISH    SUPERSTITION    AND  WITCHCRAFT  IN    NEGROLAND. 

' '  ONE  of  the  Africans'  deep-rooted  superstitions  is  witchcraft, 
to  the  operation  of  which  they  generally  ascribe  disease  and 
death,  —  the  very  infirmities  of  age  being  attributed  to  the  same 
influence.  The  doctor,  being  sent  for  upon  emergencies  of  this 
nature,  gives  some  root  or  drug  to  his  patient,  accompanying  the 
administration  of  it  with  a  farcical  expression  of  countenance,  and 
a  mysterious  assumption  of  manner,  pretending  to  charm  from  the 
sufferer  some  noxious  reptile,  by  which  he  alleges  that  the  malady 
is  occasioned,  and  contriving,  at  the  same  time,  secretly  to  pro- 
duce one,  which  is  supposed  to  have  been  withdrawn  from  the 
person  afflicted.  If  the  patient  should  happen  to  recover,  the 
Igiaka  is  greatly  commended  for  his  skill,  and  obtains  an  ade- 
quate remuneration ;  if,  on  the  contrary,  the  sickness  should  in- 
crease, another  doctor,  called  the  '  discoverer  of  bewitching 
matter,1  is  then  summoned,  who  professes  to  discover  the  party 
supposed  to  have  bewitched  him.  The  guilt  having  been  affixed, 
after  many  absurd  ceremonies,  upon  some  unfortunate  wretch,  a 
report  is  made  to  the  chief,  who  directs  torture  to  be  inflicted  on 
him,  for  the  purpose  of  eliciting  confession.  The  usual  method 
of  torture  is  by  the  application  of  heated  stones  to  the  tenderest 
parts  of  the  outstretched  body,  the  hands  and  feet  being  first  made 
fast  to  four  stakes  at  equal  distances,  while  myriads  of  ants  are 
scattered  over  the  agonized  victim,  whose  skin  is  exposed  to  the 
painful  gnawing  of  these  swarming  insects.  It  can  be  no  matter 
of  surprise  that  innocent  persons,  subjected  to  these  terrible  pun- 
ishments, should  be  induced  to  confess  the  agency  of  which  they 
have  been  accused,  and  instances  are  on  record  of  many  individ- 
uals, perfectly  guiltless,  who  have  admitted  the  crime  rather  than 
to  undergo  the  fiery  ordeal,  through  a  natural  dread  of  its 
horrors." —  Steadmari's  Africa,  Vol.  /.,  page  37. 


"  Witchcraft  is  a  prominent  and  leading  superstition  among  all 
the  races  of  Africa,  and  may  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  heaviest 


46        SUPERSTITION  AND    WITCHCRAFT  IN  NEGROLAND. 

curses  which  rests  upon  that  benighted  land.  ...  A  person 
endowed  with  this  mysterious  art  is  supposed  to  possess  little  less 
than  omnipotence.  He  exercises  unlimited  control,  not  only  over 
the  lives  and  destiny  of  his  fellow-men,  but  over  the  wild  beasts  of 
the  woods,  over  the  sea  and  dry  land,  and  over  all  the  elements 
of  nature.  He  may  transform  himself  into  a  tiger,  and  keep  the 
community  in  which  he  lives  in  a  state  of  constant  fear  and  per- 
turbation ;  into  an  elephant,  and  desolate  their  farms ;  or  into  a 
shark,  and  devour  all  the  fish  in  their  rivers.  By  his  magical 
arts  he  can  keep  back  the  showers,  and  fill  the  land  with  want 
and  distress.  The  lightnings  obey  his  commands,  and  he  need 
only  wave  his  wand  to  call  forth  the  pestilence  from  its  lurking- 
place.  The  sea  is  lashed  into  fury,  and  the  storm  rages  to  exe- 
cute his  behests.  In  short,  there  is  nothing  too  hard  for  the 
machinations  of  witchcraft.  Sickness,  poverty,  insanity,  and  al- 
most every  evil  incident  to  human  life,  are  ascribed  to  its  agency." 
—  Wilson's  Africa,  page  222. 


"  Every  death  which  occurs  in  the  community  is  ascribed  to 
•  witchcraft,  and  some  one,  consequently,  is  guilty  of  the  wicked 
deed.  The  priesthood  go  to  work  to  find  out  the  guilty  person. 
It  may  be  a  brother,  a  sister,  a  father,  and,  in  a  few  extreme 
cases,  even  mothers  have  been  accused  of  the  unnatural  deed  of 
causing  the  death  of  their  own  offspring.  There  is,  in  fact,  no 
effectual  shield  against  the  suspicion  of  it.  Age,  the  ties  of  re- 
lationship, official  prominence,  and  general  benevolence  of  char- 
acter, are  alike  unavailing.  The  priesthood,  in  consequence 
of  the  universal  belief  in  the  superstition,  have  unlimited  scope 
for  the  indulgence  of  the  most  malicious  feelings,  and,  in  many 
cases,  it  is  exercised  with  unsparing  severity."  —  Wilson's  Africa, 
page  223. 


"The  intercourse  which  the  natives  have  had  with  white  men 
does  not  seem  to  have  much  ameliorated  their  condition.  A  great 
number  of  persons  are  reported  to  lose  their  lives  annually  in  dif- 
ferent districts  of  Angola  by  the  cruel  superstitions  to  which  they 
are  addicted ;  and  the  Portuguese  authorities  either  know  nothing 
of  them,  or  are  unable  to  prevent  their  occurrence.  The  natives 


SUPERSTITION  AND    WITCHCRAFT  IN  NEGROLAND.        47 

are  bound  to  secrecy  by  those  who  administer  the  ordeal,  which 
generally  causes  the  death  of  the  victim.  A  person,  when  ac- 
cused of  witchcraft,  will  often  travel  from  distant  districts,  in 
order  to  assert  her  innocency  and  brave  the  test.  They  come  to 
a  river  on  the  Cassange,  called  Dua,  drink  the  infusion  of  a 
poisonous  tree,  and  perish  unknown.  A  woman  was  accused  by 
a  brother-in-law  of  being  the  cause  of  his  sickness  while  we  were 
at  Cassange.  She  offered  to  take  the  ordeal,  as  she  had  the  idea 
that  it  would  but  prove  her  conscious  innocence.  Captain  Neves 
refused  his  consent  to  her  going,  and  thus  saved  her  life,  which 
would  have  been  sacrificed,  for  the  poison  is  very  virulent.  When 
a  strong  stomach  rejects  it,  the  accuser  reiterates  his  charge  ;  the 
dose  is  repeated,  and  the  person  dies.  Hundreds  perish  thus 
every  year  in  the  valley  of  Cassange."  —  Livingstone's  Africa, 
page  471. 


"In  several  tribes,  a  child  which  is  said  to  'tlolo'  (trangress) 
is  put  to  death.  '  Tlolo,'  or  transgression,  is  ascribed  to  several 
curious  cases.  A  child  who  cut  the  upper  front  teeth  before  the 
under  was  always  put  to  death  among  the  Bakaa,  and,  I  believe, 
also  among  the  Bakwains.  In  some  tribes,  a  case  of  twins  ren- 
ders one  of  them  liable  to  death ;  and  an  ox,  which,  while  lying 
in  the  pen,  beats  the  ground  with  its  tail,  is  treated  in  the  same 
way.  It  is  thought  to  be  calling  death  to  visit  the  tribe.  When 
I  was  coming  through  Londa,  my  men  carried  a  great  number  of 
fowls,  of  a  larger  breed  than  any  they  had  at  home.  If  one 
crowed  before  midnight,  it  had  been  guilty  of  '  tlolo,'  and  was 
killed.  The  men  often  carried  them  sitting  on  their  guns,  and  if 
one  began  to  crow  in  a  forest,  the  owner  would  give  it  a  beating, 
by  way  of  teaching  it  not  to  be  guilty  of  crowing  at  unseasonable 
hours."  —  Livingstone 's  Africa,  page  618. 


"  When  a  person  of  influence  is  taken  ill,  or  dies,  the  cause  is 
eagerly  sought  after,  not  in  the  nature  of  the  disease,  but  in  some 
person  who  was  at  enmity  with  the  deceased,  or  who  had  acted  in 
some  way  to  excite  suspicion.  This  was  very  natural  in  them,  as 
they  did  not  believe  in  an  overruling  Providence.  It  was  the 
universal  belief,  as  well  as  their  wish,  that  men  would  live  alway, 


48        SUPERSTITION  AND    WITCHCRAFT  IN  NEGROLAND. 

and  that  death  was  entirely  the  result  of  witchcraft,  or  medicine 
imparted  by  some  malignant  hand,  or  of  some  casualty,  or  want 
of  food.  The  death  of  the  poor  excited  but  little  sorrow ;  and  less 
surmise ;  on  the  other  hand,  I  have  known  instances  where  the 
domestics  of  a  principal  man  have  been  murdered  in  cold  blood, 
just  because  it  was  suspected  that  they  had  something  to  do  with 
their  master's  sickness."  —  Mojfafs  Africa,  page  292. 


"  At  the  different  towns  and  villages  through  which  we  passed, 
they  brought  to  us  all  the  sick  to  be  cured.  Nor  was  it  the  sick 
alone  who  sought  advice,  but  men  and  women  of  all  descriptions, 
—  the  former  for  some  remedy  against  impotency,  and  the  latter 
to  remove  sterility.  Many  came  for  preventives  against  appre- 
hended or  barely  possible  calamities ;  and,  in  anticipation  of  the 
imaginable  ills  of  life,  resorted  to  us  in  full  hope  and  confidence 
of  our  being  able  to  ward  them  off.  The  women  were  particu- 
larly fanciful  in  these  matters,  and  were  frequently  importunate 
to  receive  medicines  that  would  preserve  the  affections  of  their 
gallants,  insure  them  husbands,  or,  what  was  highly  criminal, 
effect  the  death  of  some  favored  rival."  —  Clappertori's  Africa,  Vol. 
III.,  page  239. 


"  At  my  instance,  Benderachmani  sent  a  courier  to  Nyffee,  to 
endeavor  to  recover  Mr.  Hornemann's  manuscripts,  for  which  I 
offered  him  a  reward  of  a  hundred  dollars ;  but  on  my  return  from 
Sackatoo  I  found  the  messenger  come  back  with  the  information, 
that  Jussuf  Felatah,  a  learned  man  of  the  country,  with  whom 
Mr.  Hornemann  lodged,  had  been  burned  in  his  own  house,  to- 
gether with  all  Mr.  Hornemann's  papers,  by  the  negro  rabble, 
from  a  superstitious  dread  of  his  holding  intercourse  with  evil 
spirits."  —  Clappertori's  Africa,  Vol.  IV.,  page  56. 


"The  Damaras  have  great  faith  in  witchcraft.  Individuals 
versed  in  the  black  art  are  called  Omundu-Onganga,  and  are 
much  sought  after.  Any  person  falling  sick  is  immediately  at- 
tended by  one  of  these  impostors,  whose  panacea  is  to  besmear 
the  mouth  and  the  forehead  of  the  patient  with  the  ordure  of  the 


SUPERSTITION  AND    WITCHCRAFT  IN  NEGROLAND.       49 

hyena,  which  is  supposed  to  possess  particularly  healing  virtues." 
—  Anderssorfs  Africa,,  page  173. 


"  To  become  a  witch-doctor  of  any  importance,  a  person  is  re- 
quired to  be  instructed  by  one  previously  well  versed  in  the  mys- 
teries of  the  black  art.  He  must  begin  his  lessons  by  swallowing 
animal  poison,  be  bitten  by  venomous  reptiles,  or  have  poison 
inoculated  into  his  body.  A  cap,  a  handkerchief,  or  any  sort  of 
clothing  worn  by  such  a  person  until  it  has  become  perfectly  satu- 
rated with  filth,  is  considered  the  most  infallible  cure  for  all  kinds 
of  diseases,  poisonous  bites,  etc.  On  emergencies,  a  corner  of 
this  treasure  is  washed,  and  the  dirty  water  thus  produced  is  given 
to  the  patient  to  drink." — Anderssori's  Africa,  page  256. 


"On  other  portions  of  the  coast  their  customs  are  more  cruel 
about  witchcraft  than  among  the  Greboes.  Any  one,  once  accused 
of  witchcraft,  is  burnt  most  cruelly.  In  some  places  a  slow  fire  is 
made,  and  four  posts  sunk  into  the  ground,  at  certain  distances, 
the  person  tied  hands  and  feet  to  these  posts,  and  suspended  over 
the  fire,  thus  being  slowly  burnt ;  sometimes  they  are  left  to  die 
there  ;  at  other  times  they  are  taken  down  before  death,  cast  into 
the  bush,  and  left  to  perish  miserably.  No  one  must  pity  a  witch. 
Sometimes  they  torture  them  a  different  fashion :  they  are  fast- 
ened down  so  that  they  cannot  move,  and  then  red-hot  coals  are 
placed  on  different  parts  of  the  body,  and  there  left  to  eat  into  the 
flesh."  —  Brittari's  Every-Day  Life  in  Africa,  page  344. 


"  They  are  believers  in  witchcraft  to  an  unlimited  extent;  but 
what,  they  understand  by  the  term  is  very  difficult  to  say.  I  once 
obtained  the  character  of  a  wizard  by  mixing  a  seidlitz-powder, 
and  drinking  it  off  during  effervescence,  for  the  spectators  took  it 
for  granted  that  the  water  was  boiling."  —  Draysorfs  Africa,  page 
36. 

"The  ladies  solicited  amulets  to  restore  their  beauty,  to  pre- 
serve the  affections  of  their  lovers,  and  even  to  destroy  a  hated 
rival.    The  son  of  the  Governor  of  Kano,  having  called  upon  Mr. 
5 


50       SUPERSTITION  AND   WITCHCRAFT  IN  NEGROLAND. 

Clapperton,  stated  it  as  the  conviction  of  the  whole  city  and  1m 
own,  that  the  English  had  the  power  of  converting  men  into  asses, 
goats,  and  monkeys,  and  likewise  that  by  reading  in  his  book  he 
could  at  any  time  commute  a  handful  of  earth  into  gold."  —  Mur- 
ray's African  Discoveries,  page  162. 


"  In  times  of  tribulation,  the  magician,  if  he  ascertains  a  war  is 
projected,  by  inspecting  the  blood  and  bones  of  a  fowl  which  he 
has  flayed  for  that  purpose,  flays  a  young  child,  and,  having  laid 
it  lengthwise  on  a  path,  directs  all  the  warriors,  on  proceeding  to 
battle,  to  step  over  his  sacrifice  and  insure  themselves  victory. 
Another  of  these  extra  barbarous  devices  takes  place  when  a  chief 
wishes  to  make  war  on  his  neighbor,  by  his  calling  in  a  magician 
to  discover  a  propitious  time  for  commencing.  The  doctor  places 
a  large  earthen  vessel,  half  full  of  water,  over  a  fire,  and  over  its 
mouth  a  grating  of  sticks,  whereon  he  lays  a  small  child  and  a 
fowl  side  by  side,  and  covers  them  over  with  a  second  large 
earthen  vessel,  just  like  the  first,  only  inverted,  to  keep  the  steam 
in,  when  he  sets  fire  below,  cooks  for  a  certain  period  of  time, 
and  then  looks  to  see  if  his  victims  are  still  living  or  dead,  — 
when,  should  they  be  dead,  the  war  must  be  deferred,  but,  other- 
wise, commenced  at  once."  —  Speke's  Africa,  page  21. 


"  To  prevent  any  evil  approaching  their  dwellings,  a  squashed 
frog,  or  any  other  such  absurdity,  when  placed  on  the  back,  is 
considered  a  specific."  —  Speke's  Africa,  page  22. 


"  The  king  was  surrounded  by  sorcerers,  both  men  and  women. 
These  people  were  distinguished  from  others  by  witch-like  chap- 
lets  of  various  dried  roots  worn  upon  the  head  ;  some  of  them  had 
dried  lizards,  crocodiles'  teeth,  lions1  claws  and  minute  tortoise- 
shells,  added  to  their  collection  of  charms.  They  could  havo 
subscribed  to  the  witches'  caldron  of  Macbeth,  — 

"  Eye  of  newt  and  toe  of  frog, 
Wool  of  .bat  and  tongue  of  dog, 
Adder's  fork  and  blind  worm's  sting, 
Lizard's  leg  and  owlet's  wing, 


SUPERSTITION  AND   WITCHCRAFT  IN  NEGROLAND.       51 

For  a  charm  of  powerful  trouble, 
Like  a  hell-broth  boil  and  bubble." 

—  Baker's  Great  Basin  of  the  Nile,  page  411. 


"  On  the  21st  of  June,  when  I  was  quietly  sitting  in  my  house, 
one  of  the  governor's  servants,  who  was  well  disposed  toward 
me,  and  who  used  to  call  occasionally,  suddenly  made  his  ap- 
pearance with  a  very  serious  countenance,  and,  after  some  hesi- 
tation and  a  few  introductory  remarks,  delivered  a  message  from 
the  governor  to  the  following  effect :  He  wanted  to  know  from 
me  whether  it  was  true  (as  was  rumored  in  the  town,  and  as  the 
people  had  told  him)  that,  as  soon  as  a  thunder-storm  was 
gathering,  and  when  the  clouds  appeared  in  the  sky,  I  went  out 
of  my  house  and  made  the  clouds  withdraw ;  for  they  had  assured 
him  that  they  had  repeatedly  noticed  that,  as  soon  as  I  looked  at 
the  clouds  with  a  certain  air  of  command,  they  passed  by  with- 
out bringing  a  single  drop  of  rain."  —  Earth's  Africa,  Vol.  II., 
page  509. 


"  A  tree  in  Kukiya  was  remarkable  on  account  of  a  peculiar 
charm,  which  testified  to  the  many  remains  of  pagan  rites  still 
lingering  in  these  countries.  It  consisted  of  two  earthen  pots, 
placed  one  upon  the  other,  and  filled  with  a  peculiar  substance, 
and  was  supposed  to  guarantee  prolificness  to  the  mares  of  the 
village."  —  Bartfts  Africa,  Vol.  II.,  page  427. 


"  In  this  part  of  Africa  are  a  sort  of  screech-owls,  which  in  the 
night  make  a  very  dismal  noise,  and  are  taken  by  the  natives  for 
witches.  If  one  of  these  birds  happens  to  come  into  a  town  at 
night,  the  people  are  all  up  firing  at  it ;  and  as  I  do  not  find  that 
they  ever  had  the  good  fortune  to  shoot  any  of  them,  the  poor 
creatures  still  continue  in  the  opinion  of  their  being  witches."  — 
Moore's  Inland  Parts  of  Africa,  page  107. 


"  Black  magic  is  usually  punished  by  the  stake.    In  some  parts 


52        SUPERSTITION  AND    WITCHCRAFT  IN  NEGROLAND. 

of  the  country,  the  roadside  shows,  at  every  few  miles,  a  heap  01 
two  of  ashes,  with  a  few  calcined  and  blackened  human  bones 
mixed  with  bits  of  half-consumed  charcoal,  telling  the  tragedy 
that  has  been  enacted  there.  The  prospect  cannot  be  contem- 
plated without  horror.  Here  and  there,  close  to  the  larger  circles 
where  the  father  and  mother  have  been  burnt,  a  smaller  heap 
shows  that  some  wretched  child  has  shared  their  terrible  fate,  lest, 
growing  up,  he  should  follow  in  his  parents'  path." — Burton's 
Africa,  page  92. 


"With  the  aid  of  slavery  and  black  magic,  they  render  their 
subjects'  lives  as  precarious  as  they  well  can ;  no  one,  especially 
in  old  age,  is  safe  from  being  burned  at  a  day's  notice."  — 
Burton's  Africa,  page  96. 


"  The  child  who  cuts  the  two  upper  incisors  before  the  lower, 
is  either  put  to  death,  or  is  given  away,  or  sold  to  the  slave-mer- 
chant, under  the  impression  that  it  will  bring  disease,  calamity, 
and  death  into  the  household."  —  Burton's  Africa,  page  94. 


"  The  principal  instrument  of  the  magician's  craft  is  one  of  the 
dirty  little  gourds  which  he  wears  in  a  bunch  round  his  waist,  and 
the  following  is  the  usual  programme  when  the  oracle  is  to  be 
consulted :  The  magician  brings  his  implements  in  a  bag  of 
matting ;  his  demeanor  is  serious  as  the  occasion  ;  he  is  carefully 
greased,  and  his  head  is  adorned  with  the  diminutive  antelope- 
horns  fastened  by  a  thong  of  leather  above  the  forehead.  He  sits 
like  a  sultan  upon  a  dwarf  of  stool  in  front  of  the  querist,  and  be- 
gins by  exhorting  the  highest  possible  offertory.  No  pay,  no  pre- 
dict. Divination  by  the  gourd  has  already  been  described ;  the 
magician  has  many  other  implements  of  his  craft.  Some  prophesy 
by  the  motion  of  berries  swimming  in  a  cup  full  of  water,  which 
is  placed  upon  a  low  stool,  surrounded  by  four  tails  of  the  zebra 
or  the  buffalo  lashed  to  sticks  planted  upright  in  the  ground. 
The  kasanda  is  a  system  of  folding  triangles  not  unlike  those  upon 
which  plaything  soldiers  are  mounted.  Held  in  the  right  hand, 
it  is  thrown  out,  and  the  direction  of  the  end  points  to  the  safe 


SUPERSTITION  AND   WITCHCRAFT  IN  NEGROLAND.        53 

and  auspicious  route.  This  is  probably  the  rudest  appliance  of 
prestidigitation.  The  shero  is  a  bit  of  wood  about  the  size  of  a 
man's  hand,  and  not  unlike  a  pair  of  bellows,  with  a  dwarf 
handle,  a  projection  like  a  nozzle,  and  in  the  circular  centre  a 
little  hollow.  This  is  filled  with  water,  and  a  grain  or  fragment 
of  wood,  placed  to  float,  gives  an  evil  omen  if  it  tends  toward  the 
sides,  and  fa  vox-able  if  it  veei*s  toward  the  handle  of  the  nozzle." 
—  Burton's  Africa,  page  509. 


"  The  natives  of  Bihe  are,  in  many  particulars,  very  supersti- 
tious. If,  on  setting  out  on  a  journey,  a  stag  or  goat  crosses  their 
path,  or  if  even  a  stick  falls  across  it,  they  return  and  have  re- 
course to  their  diviners,  to  interpret  this  formidable  omen.  Hav- 
ing anointed  themselves  with  some  preparation  of  aromatic  herbs 
and  roots,  which  have  for  a  certain  pei'iod  been  buried  under  their 
beds,  they  consider  that  they  may  proceed  on  their  journey  with- 
out danger." —  Voided s  Africa,  Vol.  II.,  page  330. 


"  Some  of  their  practices  are  most  ridiculous.  For  instance, 
they  will  take  the  horn  of  a  stag,  and  throwing  into  the  cavity  the 
claws  of  certain  birds,  some  feathers,  and  roots,  cover  it  with  the 
skin  of  a  monkey.  Then,  taking  a  large  horn,  they  throw  into  it 
three  smaller  ones,  extracted  from  fawns  of  a  month  old,  and  fill 
it  with  a  particular  kind  of  paste.  When  they  desire  a  favor  from 
any  one  of  their  idols  they  whistle  into  the  horn,  ignite  some  gun- 
powder which  has  been  thrown  into  it,  and  then  dance  and  sing. 
They  also  preserve  the  powder  of  a  certain  kind  of  wood,  the 
heads  of  certain  snakes,  and  the  claws  of  certain  birds,  —  all  these 
being  considered  as  antidotes  against  disease.  These  customs  are 
observed  by  the  chiefs  themselves  as  lawful  and  necessary." — 
Valdez's  Africa,  Vol.  II.,  page  330. 


"  Superstition  seems  in  these  countries  to  have  run  wild,  and 
every  man  believes  what  his  fancy,  by  some  accident,  most  forci- 
bly presents  to  him  as  hurtful  or  beneficial."  —  Du  Ckaillu's  Equa- 
torial Africa,  page  383. 
5* 


54        SUPERSTITION  AND    WITCHCRAFT  IN  NEGROLAND. 

"  If  the  African  is  once  possessed  with  the  belief  that  he  is  be- 
witched, his  nature  seems  to  change.  He  becomes  suspicious  of 
his  dearest  friends.  The  father  dreads  his  children ;  the  son  his 
father  and  mother ;  the  man  his  wife ;  and  the  wives  their  hus- 
band. He  fancies  himself  sick,  and  really  often  becomes  sick 
through  his  fears.  By  night  he  thinks  himself  surrounded  with 
evil  spirits.  He  covers  himself  with  fetiches  and  charms ;  makes 
presents  to  the  idol,  and  to  Abainbou  and  Mbuirri ;  and  is  full  of 
wonderful  and  frightful  dreams,  which  all  point  to  the  fact  that 
the  village  is  full  of  wicked  sorcerers.  Gradually  the  village 
itself  becomes  infected  by  his  fears.  The  people  grow  suspicious. 
Chance  turns  their  suspicions  to  some  unlucky  individual  who  is 
supposed  to  have  a  reason  for  a  grudge.  Finally  the  excitement 
becomes  too  high  to  be  restrained ;  and  often  they  do  not  even 
wait  for  a  death,  but  begin  at  once  the  work  of  butchering  those 
on  whom  public  suspicion  is  fastened.  At  least  seventy-five  per 
cent,  of  the  deaths  in  all  the  tribes  are  murders  for  supposed  sor- 
cery."—  Du  Chaillu's  Equatorial  Africa,  page  386. 

"  I  noticed  in  the  village  of  Yoongoolapay  a  custom  or  supersti- 
tion which  is  common  to  all  the  tribes  I  have  visited,  and  the  rea- 
son, or  supposed  reason  for  which,  I  have  never  been  able 
to  persuade  any  one  to  tell  me.  On  the  first  night  when  the  new 
moon  is  visible,  all  is  kept  silent  in  the  village;  nobody  speaks 
but  in  an  under-tone ;  and  in  the  course  of  the  evening  King  Alapay 
came  out  of  his  house  and  danced  along  the  street,  his  face  and 
body  painted  in  black,  red,  and  white,  and  spotted  all  over  with 
spots  the  size  of  a  peach.  In  the  dim  moonlight  he  had  a  fright- 
ful appearance,  which  made  me  shudder  at  first.  I  asked  him 
why  he  painted  thus,  but  he  only  answered  by  pointing  to  the 
moon,  without  speaking  a  word." — Du  Chaillu's  Equatorial 
Africa,  page  141. 


"  Greegrees  are  generally  worn  about  the  neck  or  waist ;  are 
made  of  the  skins  of  rare  animals,  of  the  claws  of  birds,  the  teetlr 
of  crocodiles  or  leopards,  of  the  dried  flesh  and  brains  of  animals, 
of  the  feathers  of  rare  birds,  of  the  ashes  of  certain  kinds  of  wood, 
of  the  skin  and  bones  of  serpents,  etc.,  etc.  Every  greegree  haa 


SUPERSTITION  AND    WITCHCRAFT  IN  NEGROLAND.        55 

a  special  power.  One  protects  from  sickness ;  another  makes 
the  heart  of  the  hunter  or  warrior  brave ;  another  gives  success  to 
the  lover ;  another  protects  against  sorcery ;  some  cure  sterility, 
and  others  make  the  mother's  breast  abound  in  milk  for  her  babe. 
The  charmed  leopard's  skin,  worn  about  the  warrior's  middle,  is 
supposed  to  render  that  worthy  spear-proof ;  and,  with  an  iron 
chain  about  his  neck,  no  bullet  can  hit  him.  If  the  charm  fails, 
his  faith  is  none  the  less  firm,  for  then  it  is  plain  that  some  po- 
tent and  wicked  sorcerer  has  worked  a  too  powerful  counter- 
spell,  and  to  this  he  has  fallen  a  victim."  —  Du  Chaillu's  Equa- 
torial Africa,  page  385. 


"Guessing  the  rascals  had  killed  the  poor  old  man,  whom 
they  denounced  as  a  wizard,  and  turning  my  step  toward  the 
river,  I  was  met  by  the  crowd  returning,  every  man  armed  with 
axe,  knife,  cutlass,  or  spear,  and  these  weapons  and  their  own 
hands,  and  arms,  and  bodies,  all  sprinkled  with  the  blood  of  their 
victim.  In  their  frenzy  they  had  tied  the  poor  wizard  to  a  log 
near  the  river  bank,  and  then  deliberately  hacked  him  into  many 
pieces.  They  finished  by  splitting  open  his  skull  and  scattering 
the  brains  in  the  water."  —  Du  Chaillu's  Equatorial  Africa,  page  63. 


"  One  of  the  hunters  had  shot  a  wild  bull,  and  when  the  carcass 
was  brought  in,  the  good  fellow  sent  me  an  abundant  supply  of 
the  best  portions.  The  meat  is  tough,  but  was  most  welcome  for 
a  change.  I  had  a  great  piece  boiled  for  dinner,  and  expected 
King  Quengueza  to  eat  as  much  as  would  make  several  hungry 
white  men  sick.  Judge  of  my  surprise,  when,  coming  to  the  table 
and  seeing  only  the  meat,  he  refused  to  touch  it.  I  asked  why. 
'  It  is  roondah  for  me,'  he  replied.  And  then,  in  answer  to  my 
question,  explained  that  the  meat  of  the  bos  brachicheros  was  for- 
bidden to  his  family,  and  was  an  abomination  to  them,  for  the 
reason  that  many  generations  ago  one  of  their  women  gave  birth 
to  a  calf  instead  of  a  child.  I  laughed,  but  the  king  replied  veiy 
soberly  that  he  could  show  me  a  woman  of  another  family 
whose  grandmother  had  given  birth  to  a  crocodile,  —  for  which 
reason  the  crocodile  was  roondah  to  that  family.  Quengueza 
would  never  touch  my  salt  beef,  nor  even  the  pork,  fearing  lest  it 


56        SUPERSTITION  AND    WITCHCRAFT  IN  NEGROLAND. 

had  been  in  contact  with  the  beef.  Indeed  they  are  all  religiously 
scrupulous  in  this  matter;  and  I  found,  on  inquiry  afterward,  that 
scarce  a  man  can  be  found  to  whom  some  article  of  food  is  not 
'  roondah.'  Some  dare  not  taste  crocodile,  some  hippopotamus, 
some  monkey,  some  boa,  some  Avild  pig,  and  all  from  this  same 
belief.  They  will  literally  suffer  the  pangs  of  starvation  rather 
than  break  through  this  prejudice ;  and  they  firmly  believe  that  if 
one  of  a  family  should  eat  of  such  forbidden  food,  the  women  of 
the  same  family  would  surely  miscarry,  and  give  birth  to  mon- 
strosities in  the  shape  of  the  animal  which  is  roondah,  or  else  die 
of  an  awful  disease."  —  Du  Chaillu's  Equatorial  Africa,  page  355. 


"When  we  stopped  for  breakfast  next  day,  I  noticed  a  little 
way  from  us  an  extraordinary  tree,  quite  the  largest  in  height  and 
circumference  I  ever  saw  in  Africa.  It  was  a  real  monarch  of 
even  this  great  forest.  It  rose  in  one  straight  and  majestic  trunk, 
entirely  branchless,  till  the  top  reached  far  above  all  the  surround- 
ing trees.  There  at  the  top  the  branches  were  spread  out  some- 
what like  an  umbrella,  but  could  not  give  much  shade,  being  so 
high.  I  found  that  this  tree  was  highly  venerated  by  the  people, 
who  call  it  the  oloumi.  Its  kind  is  not  common  even  here,  where 
its  home  is  said  to  be.  Its  bark  are  said  to  have  certain  healing 
properties,  and  is  also  in  request  from  a  belief  that  if  a  man  going 
off  on  a  ti-ading  expedition  washes  himself  first  all  over  in  a  de- 
coction of  its  juices  in  water,  he  will  be  lucky  and  shrewd  in  mak- 
ing bargains.  For  this  reason  great  strips  were  torn  off  this  tree 
to  the  height  of  at  least  twenty  feet."  —  Du  Chaillu's  Equatorial 
Africa,  page  308. 


"  The  morning  before  we  set  out,  we  accidentally  stumbled 
across  one  of  those  acts  of  barbarism  which  chill  the  blood  of  a 
civilized  man,  though  but  slightly  regarded  by  the  negroes.  I 
was  hunting  in  the  woods  near  the  village,  and  saw  sitting  on  a 
tree  at  some  distance  a  pair  of  beautiful  green  pigeons,  which  I 
wanted  much  for  my  collection  of  birds.  By  dint  of  much  exer- 
tion, I  penetrated  the  jungle  to  the  foot  of  the  tree,  and  here  a 
ghastly  sight  met  my  eyes.  It  was  the  corpse  of  a  woman,  young 
evidently,  and  with  features  once  mild  and  good.  She  had  beeii 


FET1CHISM,  PRIESTCRAFT,   AND  IDOLATRY.  57 

tied  up  here  on  some  infernal  accusation  of  witchcraft,  and  tor- 
tured. The  torture  consisted  in  lacerations  of  the  flesh  all  over 
the  body,  and  in  the  cuts  red  peppers  had  been  rubbed.  This  is 
a  common  mode  of  tormenting  with  these  people,  and  as  devilish 
in  ingenuity  as  anything  could  well  be.  Then  the  corpse  was  de- 
serted. I  could  only  hope  the  poor  girl  died  of  her  wounds, 
and  had  not  to  wait  for  the  slower  process  of  agonized  starvation  to 
which  such  victims  are  left.  Will  the  reader  think  hard  of  me 
that  I  felt  it  in  my  heart  to  go  back  to  the  village  and  shoot  every 
man  who  had  a  hand  in  this  monstrous  barbarity  ?  "  — Du  Chaillu's 
Equatorial  Africa,  page  156. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

FETICHISM,  PRIESTCRAFT,   AND  IDOLATRY  IN  NEGROLAND. 

"  WHEN  the  Congo  priest  appears  in  public  he  walks  on  his 
hands,  with  his  body  straight  and  his  feet  in  the  air.  He  can 
walk  in  this  manner,  through  constant  practice,  with  great  ease 
and  rapidity.  He  is  the  medicine-man  or  fetich-doctor,  and  is 
consulted  in  cases  of  sickness  and  witchcraft.  To  the  cunning  of 
this  priest  may  easily  be  traced  that  superstition  which  I  have  de- 
scribed as  prevalent  in  Equatorial  Africa,  that  no  one  dies  a  natural 
death.  If  any  one  dies  in  spite  of  the  medicines  of  the  priest,  he 
preserves  his  reputation  by  declaring  that  the  patient  has  been 
bewitched,  and  obtains  more  money  by  discovering  the  sorcerer. 
There  is  still  another  priest,  who  officiates  as  rain-maker ;  for  this, 
a  knowledge  of  the  seasons,  which  in  Congo  never  vary  more 
than  a  few  days,  is  all  that  is  required.  The  ceremony  of  rain- 
making  is  that  of  covering  mounds  with  branches  of  trees  and 
ornaments  of  fetich,  and  of  walking  round  these,  muttering  in- 
cantations." —  Readers  Savage  Africa,  page  288. 


58  FETICHISMj   PRIESTCRAFT,   AND  IDOLATRY. 

"  Idol  worship  in  Africa  confines  the  idolater  to  no  particular 
idol ;  as  he  attributes  his  prosperity  to  the  protecting  care  of  his 
fetich,  he  will,  as  long  as  his  prosperity  continues,  remain  stead- 
fast to  the  worship  of  that  particular  fetich  ;  but  when  difficulties 
arise,  and  he  is  beset  with  perplexities,  he  will  range  at  will,  as 
fancy  directs  him,  to  a  thousand  different  objects,  and  make  them 
the  gods  of  his  gross  idolatry.  The  prosperous  man  is  thei-efore 
confined  in  his  worship  to  fewer  idols  and  observances  than  the 
unfortunate.  The  former  has  faith  in  the  power  of  his  idol,  while 
the  latter  cannot  rest  until  he  has  found  a  relief  from  his  troubles ; 
and  hence  the  multiplication  of  his  idols  and  of  his  modes  of 
worship." — CruickshanK's  Africa,  Vol.  IL,  page  132. 


"  When  any  calamity  is  general,  such  as  a  drought,  a  dearth,  a 
pestilence,  or  want  of  success  in  war,  the  whole  population  or 
their  representatives,  with  their  chiefs  and  head  men,  repair  to  the 
chief  boossum  to  make  their  offerings  and  sacrifice,  and  to  seek, 
through  the  intercession  of  the  priests,  a  mitigation  and  a  release 
from  their  sufferings.  These  priests,  aware  of  the  necessity  of 
making  a  deep  impression  upon  such  momentous  occasions,  sur- 
round the  whole  of  their  proceedings  with  a  fearful  secrecy  and 
mysterious  solemnity,  calculated  to  awe  the  minds  of  the  sup- 
plicants, and  they  deliver  their  oracles  in  such  enigmatical  lan- 
guage as  may  be  capable  of  a  double  interpretation." — Cruick- 
shantfs  Africa,  Vol.  II. ,  page  130. 


"There  is  one  peculiar  form,  which  the  fetich  worship  of  a 
family  about  to  be  separated  takes,  which  deserves  to  be  recorded, 
as  in  it  we  have  no  external  representation  of  an  idol.  In  view 
of  a  separation  which  will  most  probably  prevent  them  from  ever 
again  worshipping  the  boossum,  to  which  they  have  made  their - 
devotions  hitherto,  they  repair  to  the  priest,  or  sofoo,  and  having 
explained  their  wants,  he  pounds  up  some  fetich  substance,  and 
mixes  it  with  water  into  a  drink,  which  the  whole  family  swallow 
together.  While  partaking  of  this  strange  communion,  the  priest 
declares  to  them  that  his  boossum  commands  that  none  of  this 
family  shall  ever  after  partake  of  such  and  such  an  article  of  food, 
naming,  perhaps,  fowl,  mutton,  beef,  pork,  eggs,  milk,  or  any- 


59 

thing  which  he  may  choose  to  mention  at  the  time.  The  fetich 
edict  once  pronounced  against  a  particular  article  of  food  under 
such  circumstances,  no  one  of  the  family  ever  tastes  it  more  ;  and 
thus  we  find  one  who  will  not  taste  a  bit  of  chicken,  another  an 
egg,  a  turkey,  and  so  on ;  and  this  abstinence  from  a  particular 
species  of  food  descends  to  the  children,  who  are  under  the  neces- 
sity of  observing  a  similar  abstinence."  —  CruickshanJc'a  Africa, 
Vol.  IL,  page  133. 


"The  Fans  have  a  great  reverence  for  charms  and  fetiches, 
and  even  the  little  children  are  covered  with  these  talismans,  duly 
consecrated  by  the  doctor  or  -greegree  man  of  the  tribe.  They 
place  especial  value  on  charms  which  are  supposed  to  have  the 
power  to  protect  their  owner  in  battle.  Chief  among  these  is  an 
iron  chain,  of  which  the  links  are  an  inch  and  a  half  long  by  an 
inch  wide.  This  is  worn  over  the  left  shoulder,  and  hanging 
down  the  right  side.  Besides  this,  and  next  to  it  in  value,  is  a 
small  bag,  which  is  suspended  round  the  neck  or  to  the  side  of  the 
warrior.  This  bag  is  make  of  the  skin  of  some  rare  animal,  and 
contains  various  fragments  of  others,  such  as  dried  monkeys'  tails, 
the  bowels  and  claws  of  other  beasts,  shells,  feathers  of  birds, 
and  ashes  of  various  beasts."—  Du  Chaillu's  Equatorial  Africa, 
page  128. 


"Their  religion,  if  it  may  be  called  so,  is  the  same  in  all  tribes. 
They  all  believe  in  the  power  of  their  idols,  in  charms,  fetiches, 
and  in  evil  and  good  spirits.  Mahommedanism  has  not  penetrated 
into  this  vast  jungle.  They  all  believe  in  witchcraft,  — which  I 
think  is  more  prevalent  in  the  West  than  in  the  East,  —  causing 
an  untold  amount  of  slaughter."  —  Du  Chaillu's  Ashango-Land, 
page  428. 


"Their  fetiches  consisted  of  fingers  and  tails  of  monkeys,  of 
human  hair,  skin,  teeth,  bones;  of  clay,  old  nails,  copper  chains, 
shells,  feathers,  claws,  and  skulls  of  birds ;  pieces  of  iron,  copper, 
or  wood ;  seeds  of  plants ;  ashes  of  various  substances ;  and  I 
cannot  tell  what  move.  From  the  great  variety  and  plenty  of 


60  FETICHISM)  PRIESTCRAFT,   AND  IDOLATRY. 

these  objects  on  their  persons,  I  suppose  these  Fan  to  be  a  very 
superstitious  people."  —  Du  Chaillu's  Equatorial  Africa,  page  93. 


"  This  evening  I  went  to  see  the  village  idol  (the  patron  saint 
as  it  may  be  called),  and  to  witness  a  great  ceremony  in  the 
sacred  house.  As  with  the  Aviia  and  other  tribes,  the  idol  was  a 
monstrous  and  indecent  representation  of  a  female  figure  in  wood. 
I  had  remarked  that  the  further  I  travelled  toward  the  interior, 
the  coarser  these  wooden  idols  were,  and  the  more  roughly  they 
were  sculptured.  This  idol  was  kept  at  the  end  of  a  long,  nar- 
row, and  low  hut,  forty  or  fifty  feet  long,  and  ten  feet  broad,  and 
was  painted  in  red,  white,  and  black  colors.  When  I  entered  the 
hut  it  was  full  of  Ashango  people,  ranged  in  order  on  each  side, 
with  lighted  torches  stuck  in  the  ground  before  them.  Amongst 
them  were  conspicuous  two  priests,  dressed  in  clothes  of  vegeta- 
ble fibre,  with  their  skins  painted  grotesquely  in  various  colors, 
one  side  of  the  face  red,  the  other  white,  and  in  the  middle  of  the 
breast  a  broad  yellow  sti-ipe;  the  circuit  of  the  eye  was  also 
daubed  with  paint.  These  colors  are  made  by  boiling  various 
kinds  of  wood,  and  mixing  the  decoction  with  clay.  The  rest  of 
the  Ashangos  were  also  streaked  and  daubed  with  various  colors, 
and,  by  the  light  of  their  toi'ches,  they  looked  like  a  troop  of  dev- 
ils assembled  in  the  lower  regions  to  celebrate  some  diabolical 
rite.  Around  their  legs  were  bound  white  leaves  from  the  heart 
of  the  palm-tree ;  some  wore  feathers,  others  had  leaves  twisted 
in  the  shape  of  horns  behind  their  ears,  and  all  had  a  bundle  of 
palm-leaves  in  their  hands."  — Du  Chaillu's  Ashango-Land,  page 
313. 


"  As  we  came  away  from  Mouina's  village,  a  witch-doctor,  who 
had  been  sent  for,  arrived,  and  all  Mouina's  wives  went  forth 
into  the  fields  that  morning  fasting.  There  they  would  be  com- 
pelled to  drink  an  infusion  of  a  plant  named  '  goho,'  which  is  used 
as  an  ordeal.  This  ceremony  is  called  '  muavi,'  and  is  performed 
in  this  way :  When  a  man  suspects  that  any  of  his  wives  has  be- 
witched him,  he  sends  for  the  witch-doctor ;  and  all  the  wives  go 
forth  into  the  field,  and  remain  fasting  till  that  person  has  made 
an  infusion  cf  the  plant.  They  all  drink  it,  each  one  holding  up. 


FETIGHISM,  PRIESTCRAFT,  AND  IDOLATRY.  61 

her  hand  to  heaven  in  attestation  of  her  innocency.  Those  who 
vomit  it  are  considered  innocent,  while  those  whom  it  purges  are 
pronounced  guilty,  and  put  to  death  by  burning."  —  Livingstone's 
Africa,  page  666. 


"  At  different  points  in  our  course  we  came  upon  votive  offer- 
ings to  the  Barimo.  These  usually  consisted  of  food ;  and  every 
deserted  village  still  contained  the  idols  and  little  sheds  with  pots 
of  medicine  in  them.  One  afternoon  we  passed  a  small  frame 
house,  with  the  head  of  an  ox  in  it  as  an  object  of  worship.  The 
dreary  uniformity  of  gloomy  forests  and  open  flats  must  have  a 
depressing  influence  on  the  minds  of  the  people.  Some  villages 
appear  more  superstitious  than  others,  if  we  may  judge  from  the 
greater  number  of  idols  they  contain." — Livingstone's  Africa,  page 
503. 


"We  passed  two  small  hamlets,  surrounded  by  gardens  of 
maize  and  manioc,  and  near  each  of  these  I  observed,  for  the  first 
time,  an  ugly  idol,  common  in  Londa,  — the  figui'e  of  an  animal, 
resembling  an  alligator,  made  of  clay.  It  is  formed  of  grass, 
plastered  over  with  soft  clay.  Two  cowrie-shells  are  inserted  as 
eyes,  and  numbers  of  the  bristles  from  the  tail  of  an  elephant  are 
stuck  in  about  the  neck.  It  is  called  a  lion,  though,  if  one  were 
not  told  so,  he  would  conclude  it  to  be  an  alligator.  It  stood  in 
a  shed,  and  the  Balonda  pray  and  beat  drums  before  it  all  night 
in  cases  of  sickness."  —  Livingstone's  Africa,  page  304. 


"  I  was  disturbed  this  evening  from  my  repose,  on  the  dry  sand, 
under  the  pale  moonlight,  by  the  most  unearthly  noises,  coming 
from  a  group  of  our  black  servants.  On  getting  up  to  see  what 
it  was,  I  found  that  one  of  our  negresses,  a  wife  of  one  of  the  ser- 
vants, was  performing  Boree,  the  '  Devil,'  and  working  herself 
up  into  the  belief  that  his  Satanic  majesty  had  possession  of  her. 
She  threw  herself  upon  the  ground  in  all  directions,  and  imitated 
the  cries  of  various  animals.  Her  actions  were,  however,  some- 
what regulated  by  a  man  tapping  upon  a  kettle  with  a  piece  of 
wood,  beating  tune  to  her  wild  manoeuvres.  After  some  delay, 
6 


62  FETICniSM,  PRIESTCRAFT)  AND  IDOLATRY. 

believing  herself  now  possessed,  and  capable  of  performing  her 
work,  she  went  forward  to  half  a  dozen  of  our  servants,  who  were 
squatting  down  on  their  hams,  ready  to  receive  her.  She  then 
took  each  by  the  head  and  neck,  and  pressed  their  heads  between 
her  legs,  —  they  sitting,  she  standing,  —  not  in  the  most  decent 
way,  and  made  over  them,  with  her  whole  body,  certain  inelegant 
motions,  not  to  be  mentioned." — Richardson's  Africa,  Vol.  I., 
page  286. 


"  At  the  back  of  our  hut  stands  a  fetich  god,  in  a  small  thatched 
hut,  supported  by  four  wooden  pillars,  which  is  watched  contin- 
ually by  two  boys  and  a  woman.  We  were  desired  to  roast  our 
bullock  under  him,  that  he  might  enjoy  the  savory  smell  of  the 
smoking  meat,  some  of  which  he  might  also  be  able  to  eat,  if  he 
desired.  We  were  particularly  enjoined  to  roast  no  yams  under 
him,  as  they  were  considered  by  the  natives  too  poor  a  diet  to 
offer  to  their  deity."  —  Lander's  Travels  in  Africa,  Vol.  II.,  page 
163. 


"  This  day  a  long  and  gay  procession,  formed  by  the  female 
followers  of  the  ancient  religion  of  the  country,  passed  through 
the  town,  walking  and  dancing  alternately,  with  large-spreading 
branches  of  trees  in  their  hands.  The  priestess,  at  the  time  we 
saw  her,  had  just  swallowed  fetich  water,  and  was  carried  on  the 
shoulders  of  one  of  the  devotees,  who  was  assisted  by  two  female 
companions,  supporting  the  trembling  hands  and  arms  of  their 
mistress.  Her  body  was  convulsed  all  over,  and  her  features 
shockingly  distorted,  while  she  stared  wildly  and  vacantly  on  the 
troop  of  enthusiasts  and  other  objects  which  surrounded  her. 
The  priestess  was  then  believed  to  be  possessed  with  a  demon. 
Indeed,  to  us  they  all  appeared  to  be  so,  for  not  one  of  them 
seemed  in  their  sober  senses,  so  indescribably  fantastic  were  their 
actions,  and  so  unseemly  did  they  deport  themselves.  A  younger 
woman  was  likewise  borne  on  the  shoulders  of  a  friend,  and  car- 
ried along  in  the  same  manner  as  her  mistress ;  but  she  was  by 
no  means  so  uncouth  a  figure,  nor  was  her  agitation  so  great  as 
that  of  the  priestess,  by  whom  she  was  preceded.  The  whole  of 
the  women  forming  this  strange  procession  might  amount  to  be« 


FETICniSM,  PRIESTCRAFT,  AND  IDOLATRY.  63 

tween  ninety  and  a  hundred.  Their  motions  were  regulated  at 
times  by  the  sound  of  drums  and  fifes,  and  to  this  music  they 
joined  their  wild,  shrill  voices.  They  were  arranged  in  couples, 
and,  with  the  branches  of  trees  shaking  in  the  air,  presented  one 
of  the  most  extraordinary  and  grotesque  spectacles  that  the  hu- 
man mind  can  conceive."  —  Lander's  Travels  in  Africa,  Vol.  L, 
page  322. 


"  Immediately  opposite  to  the  first  square,  which  forms  the  en- 
trance to  the  chief's  residence,  stands  a  small  tree,  pi-ofusely  dec- 
orated with  human  skulls  and  bones.  This  tree  is  considered  by 
the  people  as  fetich,  or  sacred ;  and  is  supposed  to  possess  the 
virtue  of  preventing  the  evil  spirit  from  entering  the  chiefs  resi- 
dence. Near  the  tree  stands  the  house  which  is  inhabited  by 
fetich  priests,  —  a  class  of  beings  certainly  in  the  most  savage  con- 
dition of  nature  that  it  is  possible  to  imagine.  The  fetich  priests  of 
Brass  town  chalked  themselves  from  head  to  foot,  besides  dressing 
after  a  fashion  of  their  own  ;  but  these  fellows  outdo  them  by  far, 
and  make  themselves  the  most  hideous  and  disgusting  objects  pos- 
sible. Whether  it  may  be  with  the  idea  of  personifying  the  evil 
spirit  they  are  so  afraid  of,  I  could  not  learn  ;  but  they  go  about 
the  town  with  a  human  skull  fastened  over  their  face,  so  that  they 
can  see  tlu-ough  the  eye-holes ;  this  is  surmounted  by  a  pair  of 
bullock's  horns ;  their  body  is  covered  with  net,  made  of  stained 
grass ;  and,  to  complete  the  whole  and  give  them  an  appearance 
as  ridiculous  behind  as  they  are  hideous  before,  a  bullock's  tail 
protrudes  through  the  dress  and  hangs  down  to  the  ground,  ren- 
dering them  altogether  the  most  uncouth-looking  beings  imagina- 
ble. Sometimes  a  cocked-hat  is  substituted  for  the  horns,  and  the 
skull  of  a  dog  or  monkey  used,  which  renders  their  appeai'ance,  if 
possible,  still  more  grotesque.  Thus  equipped  they  are  ready  to 
perform  the  mysteries  of  their  profession,  which  I  had  not  suffi- 
cient opportunity  to  inquire  into,  but  which  are  quite  enough  to 
enslave  the  minds  of  the  people."  —  Lander's  Travels  in  Africa,  Vol. 
II. ,  page  318. 


"Becoming  obese  by  age  and  good  living,  Fundikira,  Chief  of 
the  Unyannvezi,  fell  ill  in  the  autumn  of  1858,  and,  as  usual,  his  re- 


64  F£TICHISM,   PRIESTCRAFT,  AND  IDOLATRY. 

lations  were  suspected  of  compassing  his  end  by  black  magic.  In 
these  regions  the  death  of  one  man  causes  many.  The  priest  was 
summoned  to  apply  the  usual  ordeal.  After  administering  a  mys- 
tic drug,  he  broke  the  neck  of  a  fowl,  and,  splitting  it  into  two 
lengths,  inspected  the  interior.  If  blackness  or  blemish  appear 
about  the  wings,  it  denotes  the  treachery  of  children,  relations, 
and  kinsmen ;  the  backbone  convicts  the  mother  and  grand- 
mother ;  the  tail  shows  that  the  criminal  is  the  wife,  the  thighs  the 
concubines,  and  the  injured  shanks  or  feet  the  other  slaves.  Hav- 
ing fixed  upon  the  class  of  the  criminals,  they  are  collected  to- 
gether by  the  priest,  who,  after  similarly  dosing  a  second  hen, 
throws  her  up  into  the  air  above  the  heads  of  the  crowd,  and 
singles  out  the  person  upon  whom  she  alights.  Confession  is  ex- 
torted by  tying  the  thumb  backward  till  it  touches  the  wrist,  or  by 
some  equally  barbarous  mode  of  question.  The  consequence  of 
condemnation  is  certain  and  immediate  death ;  the  mode  is  chosen 
by  the  priest.  Some  are  speared,  others  are  beheaded  or  clubbed ; 
a  common  way  is  to  bind  the  cranium  between  two  stiff  pieces  of 
wood,  which  are  gradually  tightened  by  cords  till  the  brain  bursts 
out  from  the  sutures.  For  women  they  practise  a  peculiarly  horri- 
ble kind  of  impalement.  These  atrocities  continue  until  the  chief 
recovers  or  dies,  —  at  the  commencement  of  his  attack,  in  one 
household  eighteen  souls,  male  and  female,  had  been  destroyed ; 
should  his  illness  be  protracted,  scores  will  precede  him  to  the 
grave,  for  the  magician  must  surely  die."  —  Burton's  Africa,  page 
300. 

"  The  Shangalla  have  but  one  language,  and  of  a  very  guttural 
pronunciation.  They  worship  various  trees,  serpents,  the  moon, 
planets,  and  stars  in  certain  positions,  which  I  never  could  so  per- 
fectly understand  as  to  give  any  account  of  them.  A  star  passing 
near  the  horns  of  the  moon  denotes  the  coming  of  an 'enemy. 
They  have  priests,  or  rather  diviners ;  but  it  would  seem  that  these 
are  looked  upon  as  servants  of  the  evil  being,  rather  than  of  the 
good.  They  prophesy  bad  events,  and  think  they  can  afflict  their 
enemies  with  sickness,  even  at  a  distance."  —  Sruce's  Travels,  Vol. 


11  At  Whydah  I  found  the  natives  addicted  to  a  very  grovelling 


FETICHISM,   PRIESTCRAFT,  AND  IDOLATRY.  65 

species  of  idolatry.  It  was  their  belief  that  the  good  as  well  as 
the  evil  spirit  existed  in  living  iguanas.  In  the  home  of  the  man 
with  whom  I  dwelt,  several  of  these  large  lizards  were  constantly 
fed  and  cherished  as  gods ;  nor  was  any  one  allowed  to  interfere 
with  their  freedom,  or  to  harm  them  even  when  they  grew  insuf- 
ferably offensive.  The  death  of  one  of  these  crawling  deities  is 
considered  a  calamity  in  the  household,  and  grief  for  the  reptile 
becomes  as  great  as  for  a  departed  parent."  —  Canofs  Twenty 
Years  of  an  African  Slaver,  page  266. 


"When  the  King  of  Whydah,  in  1694,  heard  that  Smith,  the 
chief  of  the  English  factory,  was  dangerously  ill  with  fever,  he 
sent  his  fetichman  to  aid  in  the  recovery.  The  priest  went  to  the 
sick  man,  and  solemnly  announced  that  he  came  to  save  him.  He 
then  marched  to  the  white  man's  burial-ground  with  a  provision 
of  brandy,  oil,  and  rice,  and  made  a  loud  oration  to  those  that 
slept  there :  '  O  you  dead  white  people,  you  wish  to  have  Smith 
among  you ;  but  our  king  likes  him,  and  it  is  not  his  will  to  let 
him  go  to  be  among  you.'  Passing  on  to  the  grave  of  Wyburn, 
the  founder  of  the  factory,  he  addressed  him :  '  You,  captain  of  all 
the  whites  who  are  here  !  Smith's  sickness  is  a  piece  of  your  work. 
You  want  his  company,  for  he  is  a  good  man ;  but  our  king  does 
not  want  to  lose  him,  and  you  can't  have  him  yet.'  Then  digging 
a  hole  over  the  grave,  he  poured  into  it  the  articles  which  he  had 
brought,  and  told  him  that  if  he  needed  these  things,  he  gave 
them  with  good-will,  but  he  must  not  expect  to  get  Smith.  The 
factor  died  notwithstanding." — Footers  Africa  and  the  American 
Flag,  page  58. 


"  A  musket  among  those  tribes  is  an  object  of  almost  supernat- 
ural dread ;  individuals  have  been  seen  kneeling  down  before  it, 
speaking  to  it  in  whispers,  and  addressing  to  it  earnest  supplica- 
tions."—  Murray 's  African  Discoveries,  page  127. 


"  The  purposes  for  which  fetiches  are  used  are  almost  without 
number.     One  guards  against  sickness,  another  against  drought, 
and  a  third  against  the  disasters  of  war.     One  is  used  to  draw 
6* 


66  FETICniSM,  PRIESTCRAFT,  AND  IDOLATRY. 

down  rain,  another  secures  good  crops,  and  a  third  fills  the  sea 
and  rivers  with  fishes,  and  makes  them  willing  to  be  taken  in  the 
fishermen's  net.  Insanity  is  cured  by  fetiches,  the  sterility  of 
women  is  removed,  and  there  is  scarcely  a  single  evil  incident  to 
human  life  which  may  not  be  overcome  by  this  means ;  the  only 
condition  annexed  is  that  the  right  kind  of  fetich  be  employed. 
Some  are  intended  to  preserve  life,  others  to  destroy  it.  One  in- 
spires a  man  with  courage,  makes  him  invulnerable  in  war,  or 
paralyzes  the  energy  of  an  adversary.  They  have  also  national 
fetiches  to  protect  their  towns  from  fire,  pestilence,  and  from  sur- 
prise by  enemies.  They  have  others  to  procure  rain,  to  make 
fruitful  seasons,  and  to  cause  abundance  of  game  in  their  woods, 
and  fish  in  their  waters.  Some  of  these  are  suspended  along  the 
highways,  a  larger  number  are  kept  under  rude  shanties  at  the 
entrances  of  their  villages ;  but  the  most  important  and  sacred  are 
kept  in  a  house  in  the  centre  of  the  village,  where  the  high-priest 
lives  and  takes  care  of  them.  Most  of  these,  and  especially  those 
at  the  entrances  of  their  villages,  are  of  the  most  uncouth  forms, 
representing  the  heads  of  animals  or  human  beings,  and  almost 
always  with  a  formidable  pair  of  horns.  One  of  the  first  things 
which  salutes  the  eyes  of  a  stranger,  after  planting  his  feet  upon 
the  shores  of  Africa,  is  the  symbols  of  this  religion.  He  steps 
forth  from  the  boat  under  a  canopy  of  fetiches,  not  only  as  a  se- 
cuilty  for  his  own  safety,  but  as  a  guaranty  that  he  does  not  carry 
the  elements  of  mischief  among  the  people ;  he  finds  them  sus- 
pended along  every  path  he  walks;  at  every  junction  of  two  or 
more  roads ;  at  the  crossing-place  of  every  stream ;  at  the  base 
of  every  large  rock  or  overgrown  forest-tree ;  at  the  gate  of  every 
village ;  over  the  door  of  every  house,  and  around  the  neck  of 
every  human  being  whom  he  meets.  They  are  set  up  on  their 
farms,  tied  around  their  fruit-trees,  and  are  fastened  to  the  necks 
of  their  sheep  and  goats  to  prevent  them  from  being  stolen.  If  a 
man  trespasses  upon  the  property  of  his  neighbor,  in  defiance  of 
the  fetiches  he  has  set  up  to  protect  it,  he  is  confidently  expected 
to  suffer  the  penalty  or  his  temerity  at  some  time  or  other.  If  he 
is  overtaken  by  a  formidable  malady  or  lingering  sickness  after- 
ward, even  should  it  be  after  the  lapse  of  twenty,  thirty,  or  forty 
years,  he  is  known  to  be  suffering  the  consequence  of  his  own 
rashness. 
"  And  not  only  are  these  fetiches  regarded  as  having  power  to 


FETICHISM,  PRIESTCRAFT,  AND  IDOLATRY.  67 

protect  or  punish  men,  but  they  are  equally  omnipotent  to  shield 
themselves  from  violence.  White  men  are  frequently  challenged 
to  test  their  invulnerability,  by  shooting  at  them ;  and  if  they  are 
destroyed  in  this  way  (and  this  is  a  very  common  occurrence), 
the  only  admission  is,  that  that  particular  fetich  had  no  special 
virtues,  or  it  would  have  defended  itself."  —  Wilson's  Africa,  page 
212.  ' *  • 


"  On  the  Gold  Coast  there  are  stated  occasions,  when  the  peo- 
ple turn  out  en  masse  (generally  at  night)  with  clubs  and  torches, 
to  drive  away  the  evil  spirits  from  their  towns.  At  a  given  signal, 
the  whole  community  start  up,  commence  a  most  hideous  howl- 
ing, beat  about  in  every  nook  and  corner  of  their  dwellings,  then 
rush  into  the  streets,  with  their  torches  and  clubs,  like  so  many 
frantic  maniacs,  beat  the  air,  and  scream  at  the  top  of  their  voices, 
until  some  one  announces  the  departure  of  the  spirits  through 
some  gate  of  the  town,  when  they  are  pursued  several  miles  into 
the  woods,  and  warned  not  to  come  back.  After  this  the  people 
breathe  easier,  sleep  more  quietly,  have  better  health,  and  the 
town  is  once  more  cheered  by  an  abundance  of  food.  Demo- 
niacal possessions  are  common,  and  the  feats  performed  by  those 
who  are  supposed  to  be  under  such  influence  are  certainly  not  un- 
like those  described  in  the  New  Testament.  Frantic  gestures, 
convulsions,  foaming  at  the  mouth,  feats  of  supernatural  strength, 
furious  ravings,  bodily  lacerations,  gnashing  of  teeth,  and  other 
things  of  a  similar  character,  may  be  witnessed  in  most  of  the 
cases  which  are  supposed  to  be  under  diabolical  influences."  — 
Wilson's  Africa,  page  217. 


"  On  some  parts  of  the  Gold  Coast  the  crocodile  is  sacred ;  a 
certain  class  of  snakes,  on  the  Slave  Coast,  and  the  shark  at 
Bonny,  are  all  regarded  as  sacred,  and  are  worshipped,  not  on 
their  own  account,  perhaps,  but  because  they  are  regarded  as  the 
temples,  or  dwelling-places  of  spirits.  Like  every  other  object  of 
the  kind,  however,  in  the  course  of  time  the  thing  signified  is  for- 
gotten in  the  representative,  and  these  various  animals  have  long 
since  been  regarded  with  superstitious  veneration,  while  little  is 
thought  of  the  indwelling  spirit."  —  Wilson's  Africa,  page  218. 


68  FETICH1SM,   PRIESTCRAFT,  AND  IDOLATRY. 

"  In  the  afternoon,  nearly  all  the  principal  persons  in  the  town 
were  dressed  in  their  gayest  attire ;  a  large  group  of  them  was 
collected  under  the  fetich-tree,  to  see  and  hear  the  fetichman, 
while  he  made  his  orations,  and  danced  to  the  sound  of  several 
drums  which  were  played  by  females.  The  appearance  of  the 
fetichman  was  very  much  like  that  of  a  clown ;  his  face  was  daubed 
with  white  clay ;  he  had  a  large  iron  chain  hanging  around  his 
neck,  which  seemed  to  be  worn  as  a  necklace ;  around  his  legs 
were  tied  bunches  of  fetich ;  and  he  held  in  his  hand  an  immense 
knife,  about  fifteen  inches  long,  and  two  and  half  broad.  Some- 
times he  danced  with  many  frantic  gestures ;  and  at  other  times 
stood  gazing  around  him  with  every  indication  of  a  vacant  mind. 
While  I  was  at  a  distance  looking  at  him,  he  set  out,  and  ran  to  a 
distance  of  about  a  hundred  yards.  Anxious  to  keep  him  in  sight, 
I  walked  forward,  past  a  small  shed,  which  would  have  concealed 
him  from  me,  and  saw  him  standing  with  a  musket  at  his  shoulder, 
taking  aim  at  a  turkey-buzzard  on  a  tree  hard  by."  —  Freeman's 
Africa,  page  26. 


"  Worship  is  not  confined  to  any  particular  species  of  serpent, 
but  is  extended  generally  to  all.  A  woman  was  seen  one  day 
worshipping  a  small  serpent,  and  overheard  praying  to  it  the 
unique  and  selfish  prayer,  '  Give  rain  to  my  garden,  let  me  have 
plenty;  and  let  there  be  nobody  in  the  world  but  you  and  me.' 
On  meeting  a  serpent  in  the  road,  a  woman  will  take  off  some  of 
her  beads  and  offer  them  as  a  present  or  sacrifice,  in  token  of  ven- 
eration. They  are  regarded  as  representing,  in  some  way,  their 
departed  ancestors ;  and  hence,  one  has  been  heard  addressing  a 
serpent,  and  saying,  '  Ah,  I  see  in  your  eyes  my  former  chief.' 
These  are  additional  facts  which  serve  to  illustrate  the  doctrine  of 
the  almost  universal  worship  of  serpents,  —  one  of  the  strangest 
anomalies  in  the  religious  history  of  mankind."  —  Freeman's  Af- 
rica, page  279. 


"  The  chief  objects  of  worship  in  Whydah  are  snakes  and  a  large 
cottonwood-tree.  There  is  a  snake-house  which  I  used  to  go  often 
to  see.  The  snakes  are  of  the  boa  species,  and  are  from  five  to 
fifteen  feet  in  length.  You  can  almost  always  see  them  crawling 


FETICHISM,   PRIESTCRAFT,   AND  IDOLATRY.  69 

about  the  streets.  When  the  natives  see  them  they  fall  down  and 
kiss  the  earth.  They  are  perfectly  harmless,  as  I  have  often  seen 
the  natives  take  them  up  and  carry  them  back  to  the  fetich-house. 
It  is  not  at  all  unfrequent  to  find  them  on  the  mat  alongside  of  you 
in  the  morning,  as  the  huts  are  without  doors.  I  had  my  lodging 
in  what  was  once  an  English  fort,  but  is  now  in  ruins,  and  is  a  fa- 
vorite resort  of  the  snakes.  I  never  found  one  in  my  room,  but 
one  morning,  upon  looking  in  the  room  adjoining  mine,  I  found 
one  almost  seven  feet  long.  The  penalty  for  killing  one  is  —  for 
a  white  person  —  the  price  of  sixty  slaves;  for  a  native,  he  is 
shut  up  in  a  bamboo  house,  and  then  the  house  is  set  on  fire.  The 
poor  fellow  has  the  privilege  of  getting  out  if  he  can,  and  running  for 
the  lagoon,  a  distance  of  two  miles,  followed  by  the  mob,  and  if 
he  reaches  the  water  he  is  free.  But  very  few  can  ever  avail 
themselves  of  this  water  cure.  It  is  a  great  dodge  with  the  fetich- 
man,  if  he  knows  that  you  are  peculiarly  averse  to  this  kind  of 
god,  to  bring  them  near  your  house  and  put  -them  down,  knowing 
they  will  enter,  and  he  will  be  sent  for  to  come  and  take  them 
away,  for  which  he  gets  a  few  strings  of  cowries." —  West's  Afri- 
can Correspondence  of  the  Boston  Post,  1859. 


"  We  passed  along  a  narrow  path  some  distance,  till  we  came 
to  two  sticks,  stuck  up,  one  on  each  side  of  the  path,  with  a  small 
piece  of  white  cotton  rag  on  the  top  of  each.  The  boys  declared 
that  it  would  be  at  the  peril  of  my  life  if  I  proceeded  any  further 
in  that  direction,  for  this  was  the  road  to  a  fetich-house ;  and  the 
fetichman  had  stuck  up  those  sticks  as  a  warning  not  to  attempt 
to  proceed  any  further.  I  pretended,  however,  not  to  compre- 
hend their  palaver,  and  walked  on  till  I  was  some  distance  past 
the  spot,  when  I  looked  round,  and  ordered  them  to  come  on; 
but  they  stood  trembling,  watching,  expecting  to  see  me  drop 
down  dead.  After  many  assurances  of  the  absurdity  of  such 
superstition,  they  we.re  at  last  induced  to  follow  me.  Such  is  the 
infatuation  of  the  people  all  along  the  West  Coast,  and,  in  fact,  in 
most  places  I  have  yet  visited  in  the  interior."  —  Duncan's  Africa, 
Vol.  /.,  page  174. 


"  The  snake  is  also  a  fetich  or  idol  here ;  and  houses  are  built 


70  RAIN-DOCTORS  AND   OTHER  DOCTORS. 

in  several  parts  of  the  town  for  the  accommodation  of  snakes, 
where  they  are  regularly  fed.  These  houses  are  about  seven  feet 
high  in  the  walls,  with  conical  roof,  about  eight  feet  diameter, 
and  circular.  The  snakes  are  of  the  boa-constrictor  tribe,  and 
are  considered  quite  harmless,  although  I  have  my  doubts  upon 
it.  They  generally  leave  this  house  at  intervals ;  and,  when  found 
by  any  of  the  natives,  are  taken  up  and  immediately  conveyed 
back  to  the  fetich-house,  where  they  are  placed  on  the  top  of  the 
wall,  under  the  thatch.  It  is  disgusting  to  witness  the  homage 
paid  to  these  reptiles  by  the  natives.  When  one  of  them  is  picked 
up  by  any  one,  others  will  prostrate  themselves  as  it  is  carried 
past,  throwing  dust  on  their  heads,  and  begging  to  be  rubbed 
over  the  body  with  the  reptile."  —  Duncan's  Africa,  Vol.  I., 
page  126. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

RAIN-DOCTORS  AND  OTHER  DOCTORS  IN  NEGROLAND. 

"  THE  natives,  finding  it  irksome  to  sit  and  wait  until  God 
gives  them  rain  from  heaven,  entertain  the  more  comfortable  idea 
that  they  can  help  themselves  by  a  variety  of  preparations,  such 
as  charcoal  made  of  burned  bats,  inspissated  renal  deposit  of  the 
mountain  cony,  the  internal  parts  of  different  animals,  —  as 
jackals'  livers,  baboons'  and  lions'  hearts,  and  hairy  calculi  from 
the  bowels  of  cows,  —  serpents'  skins  and  vertebrae,  and  every 
kind  of  tuber,  bulb,  root,  and  plant  to  be  found  in  the  country. 
Although  you  disbelieve  their  efficacy  in  charming  the  clouds  to 
pour  out  their  refreshing  treasures,  yet,  conscious  that  civility  is 
useful  everywhere,  you  kindly  state  that  you  think  they  are  mis- 
taken as  to  their  power.  The  rain-doctor  selects  a  particular 
bulbous  root,  pounds  it,  and  administers  a  cold  infusion  to  a  sheep, 
which,  in  five  minutes  afterward,  expires  in  convulsions.  Part 
of  the  same  bulb  is  converted  into  smoke,  and  ascends  toward 
the  sky ;  rain  follows  in  a  day  or  two.  The  inference  is  obvious." 
—  Livingstone's  Africa,  page  24. 


RAIN-DOCTORS  AND   OTHER  DOCTORS.  71 

"The  modes  in  which  the  rain-makers  propitiate  the  clouds  are 
various.  The  one  most  commonly  practised  is  by  collecting  a  few 
leaves  of  each  individual  variety  of  tree  in  the  forest,  which  they 
allow  to  simmer  in  large  pots  over  a  slow  fire,  while  a  sheep  is 
killed  by  pricking  it  in  the  heart  with  a  long  sewing-needle,  while 
the  rain-maker  is  employed  in  pei'forming  a  variety  of  absurd  in- 
cantations. The  steam  arising  from  the  simmering  leaves  is  sup- 
posed to  reach  and  propitiate  the  clouds,  and  the  remainder  of 
the  day  is  spent  in  dances,  which  are  joined  in  by  all  the  tribe, 
and  kept  up  till  midnight,  being  accompanied  with  songs  having 
a  long-continued  chorus,  in  which  all  join,  and  the  burden  of 
which  is  the  power  and  praises  of  the  rain-maker ;  but  the  fields 
of  young  corn  become  parched  and  withered."  —  Cumming's 
Africa,  Vol.  II.,  page  63. 


"When  the  rain-makers  fail  to  fulfil  their  promises,  they  al- 
ways ascribe  their  want  of  success  to  the  presence  of  some  mys- 
terious agency,  which  has  destroyed  the  effect  of  ,their  otherwise 
infallible  nostrums.  One  of  the  anti-rain-making  articles  is  ivory, 
which  is  believed  to  have  great  influence  in  driving  away  rain,  in 
consequence  of  which,  in  the  summer  season,  they  produce  it  only 
as  the  sun  goes  down,  at  which  time  it  is  brought  for  the  trader's 
inspection,  carefully  wrapped  in  a  kaross.  I  remember  on  one 
occasion  incurring  the  censure  of  a  whole  tribe,  who  firmly  be- 
lieved me  to  have  frightened  the  rain  from  their  dominions  by 
exposing  a  quantity  of  ivory  at  noon-day ;  and,  on  another  occa- 
sion, the  chief  of  a  ceitain  tribe  commanded  a  missionary,  with 
whom  I  am  acquainted,  to  remove  all  the  rafters  from  the  roof  of 
his  house,  these  having  been  pointed  out  by  the  rain-maker  as 
obstructing  the  success  of  his  incantations."  —  Gumming1  s  Africa, 
Vol.  IL,  page  64. 


"  It  occurred  some  time  ago,  while  the  Rev.  Mr.  Lemne  was 
residing  here,  that  a  horse  died  at  the  village,  at  a  time  when 
rain  was  much  wanted.  Mr.  Lemne  very  properly  had  the  car- 
cass of  the  animal  dragged  away  to  a  great  distance,  to  avoid  the 
evils  arising  from  its  putrefaction  in  so  hot  a  climate.  This  act 
became  a  matter  of  great  consultation,  and  it  was  decided  in  some 


72  RAIN-DOCTORS  AND   OTHER  DOCTORS. 

way  that  this  dragging  to  a  distance  the  remains  of  the  dead  horse 
prevented  the  rain  coming ;  and  the  chief  above  named  actually 
sent  men,  with  leathern  cords,  to  drag  it  again  to  the  village,  and 
there  it  was  placed,  at  no  great  distance  from  Mr.  Lemne's  house, 
and  left  to  decay ! "  —  Freeman's  Africa,  page  269. 


"  They  are  subject  to  a  variety  of  diseases  which  baffle  the  skill 
of  their  medical  advisers,  who,  in  such  cases,  have  recourse  to 
smearing  the  patient  with  cow-dung,  and  keeping  up  his  spirits 
with  the  constant  excitement  of  dancing  and  singing  within  his 
hut." —  Steedmari's  Africa,  Vol.  I.,  page  267. 


"  The  Km  candidate  for  medical  honors  is  not  subject  to  a 
formal  examination  by  a  board  of  trustees,  but  is  required  to 
evince  his  proficiency  in  a  different  way.  The  head  of  a  chicken 
is  secretly  deposited  in  one  of  a  number  of  earthen  jars  provided 
for  the  occasion,  and  he  is  required  to  go  and  point'out  the  one  in 
which  it  is  secreted.  If  he  does  this  promptly,  it  is  conclusive 
proof  of  his  qualification  to  be  a  doctor,  and  is  the  occasion  of 
unbounded  exultation  on  the  part  of  his  friends.  His  head  is  then 
shorn,  and  the  hair  is  carefully  folded  up,  and  kept  as  an  indis- 
pensable means  of  success,  and  is  sometimes  pawned  as  a  security 
for  his  good  behavior  and  faithful  discharge  of  duty.  The  doc- 
tor's badge  of  office  is  a  monkey's  skin,  which  he  carries  in  the 
form  of  a  roll  wherever  he  goes,  and  of  which  he  is  quite  as  proud 
as  his  white  brother  is  of  his  sheep-skin  diploma." —  Wilson's 
Africa,  page  134. 


"  When  all  ready  for  the  trial,  I  went  down  to  look  at  the 
Ouganga  doctor,  who  looked  literally  like  the  devil.  I  never  saw 
a  more  ghastly  object.  He  had  on  a  high  head-dress  of  black 
feathers.  His  eyelids  were  painted  red,  and  a  red  stripe,  from 
the  nose  upward,  divided  his  forehead  in  two  parts.  Another  red 
stripe  passed  round  his  head.  The  face  was  painted  white,  and 
on  each  side  of  the  mouth  were  two  round  red  spots.  About  his 
neck  hung  a  necklace  of  grass,  and  also  a  cord,  which  held  a  box 
against  his  breast.  This  little  box  is  sacred,  and  contains  spirits. 


RAIN-DOCTORS  AND   OTHER  DOCTORS.  73 

A  number  of  strips  of  leopard  and  other  skins  crossed  his  breast 
and  were  exposed  about  his  person ;  and  all  these  were  charmed, 
and  had  charms  attached  to  them.  From  each  shoulder  down  to 
his  hands  was  a  white  stripe ;  and  one  hand  was  painted  quite 
white.  To  complete  this  horrible  array,  he  wore  a  string  of  little 
bells  around  his  body. 

4\He  sat  on  a  box  or  stool,  before  which  stood  another  box  con- 
taining charms.  On  this  stood  a  looking-glass,  beside  which  lay 
a  buffalo-horn  containing  some  black  powder,  and  said,  in  addi- 
tion, to  be  the  refuge  of  many  spirits.  He  had  a  little  basket  of 
snake-bones,  which  he  shook  frequently  during  his  incantations, 
as  also  several  skins,  to  which  little  bells  were  attached.  Near 
by  stood  a  fellow  beating  a  board  with  two  sticks.  All  the  people 
of  the  village  gathered  about  this  couple,  who,  after  continuing 
their  incantations  for  quite  a  while,  at  last  came  to  the  climax. 
Jombuai  was  told  to  call  over  the  names  of  persons  In  the  village, 
iu  order  that  the  doctor  might  ascertain  if  any  one  of  those  named 
did  the  sorcery.  As  each  name  was  called,  the  old  cheat  looked 
in  the  glass  to  see  the  result.  During  the  whole  operation,  I 
stood  near  him,  which  seemed  to  trouble  him  greatly.  At  last, 
after  all  the  names  were  called,  the  doctor  declared  that  he  could 
not  find  any  'witch-man,'  but  that  an  evil  spirit  dwelt  in  the 
village,  and  many  of  the  people  would  die  if  they  continued 
there." — Du  ChaiHiCs  Equatorial  Africa,  page  282. 


"A  celebrated  doctor  had  been  sent  for  from  a  distance,  and 
appeared  in  the  morning,  decked  out  in  the  most  fantastic  man-* 
ner.  Half  his  body  was  painted  red  and  the  other  half  white  ;  his 
face  was  daubed  with  streaks  of  black^  white,  and  red ;  and,  of 
course,  he  wore  around  his  neck  a  great  quantity  of  fetiches. 
The  villagers  were  assembled,  and  the  doctor  had  commenced  his 

O 

divinations,  when  I  arrived  at  the  place,  a  witness  once  again  of 
this  gloomy  ceremony,  —  which  was  different  from  that  of  the 
Commi  people  seen  formerly  by  me,  as  related  in  '  Adventures  in 
Equatorial  Africa.'  The  doctor  counterfeited  his  voice  when 
speaking,  in  order  to  impress  on  the  people  a  due  sense  of  his 
supernatural  powers  of  divination ;  all  the  painting,  dressing,  and 
mummery  have  the  same  object  in  view,  namely,  to  strike  awe 
into  the  minds  of  the  people.  A  black  earthenware  vessel  filled 
7 


74  RAIN-DOCTORS  AND   OTHER  DOCTORS. 

with  water,  and  surrounded  by  charmed  ochre  and  fetiches,  served 
the  purpose  of  the  looking-glass  used  by  the  coast  tribes.  The 
doctor,  seated  on  his  stool,  looked  intently  and  mysteriously  into 
the  water,  shook  his  head,  then  looked  into  a  lighted  torch,  which 
he  waved  over  it,  made  contortions  with  his  body,  trying  to  look 
as  ugly  as  he  could,  then  repeated  the  mummeries  over  again, 
and  concluded  by  pronouncing  that  the  persons  who  were  bewitch- 
ing the  village  were  people  belonging  to  the  place."  — Du  Cliail- 
lu's  Ashango-Land,  page  173. 


"  Whilst  I  am  on  the  subject  of  native  doctoring,  I  must  relate 
what  I  saw  afterwards  in  the  course  of  Mayolo's  illness.  I  knew 
the  old  chief  had  been  regularly  attended  by  a  female  doctor,  and 
often  wondered  what  she  did  to  him.  At  length,  one  morning  I 
happened  to  go  into  his  house  when  she  was  administering  her 
cures,  and  remained  an  interesting  spectator  to  watch  her  opera- 
tions. Mayolo  was  seated  on  a  mat,  submitting  to  all  that  was 
done  with  the  utmost  gravity  and  patience.  Before  him  was 
extended  the  skin  of  a  wild  animal.  The  woman  was  engaged  in 
rubbing  his  body  all  over  with  her  hands,  muttering  all  the  while, 
in  a  low  voice,  words  which  I  could  not  understand.  Having 
continued  this  wholesome  friction  for  some  time,  she  took  a  piece 
of  alumbi  chalk  and  made  with  it  a  broad  stripe  along  the  middle 
of  his  chest  and  down  each  arm.  This  done,  she  chewed  a 
quantity  of  some  kind  of  roots  and  seeds,  and,  having  well 
charged  her  mouth  with  saliva,  spat  upon  him  in  different  places, 
but  aiming  her  heaviest  shots  at  the  pails  most  affected.  Finally, 
she  took  a  bunch  of  a  particular  kind  of  grass,  which  had  been 
gathered  when  in  bloom  and  was  now  dry,  and,  lighting  it, 
touched  with  the  flame  the  body  of  her  patient  in  various  places, 
beginning  at  the  foot  and  gradually  ascending  to  the  head.  I 
could  perceive  that  Mayolo  smarted  with  the  pain  of  the  burns, 
when  the  torch  remained  too  long.  When  the  flame  was 
extinguished,  the  woman  applied  the  burnt  part  of  the  torch  to  her 
patient's  body,  and  so  the  operations  ended."  —  Du  Chaillu's  Ash- 
ango-Land,  page  169. 


NAKEDNESS,   SSAMELESSNESS^  AND  PROSTITUTION.      75 

CHAPTER  IX. 

NAKEDNESS,  SUAMELESSNESS,  AND  PROSTITUTION  IN  NEGKOLAND. 

*'  CLOSE  to  the  place  where  we  stood,  was  a  circle  of  naked 
savage  women,  all  black  as  a  coal,  who  were  performing  the 
oddest  antics  imaginable ;  and  still  nearer  stood  a  wild-looking 
group  of  their  male  companions,  resting  on  their  tall  spears  and 
participating  in  the  frolic  with  all  their  hearts.  A  three-cornered 
rush  or  straw  hat,  having  a  high  peak,  but  without  a  brim,  was 
the  only  article  of  dress  worn  by  these  men."  —  Lander's  Travels 
in  Africa,  Vol.  I.,  page  307. 


"  The  Shangalla  of  both  sexes,  while  single,  go  entirely  naked ; 
the  married  men,  indeed,  have  a  very  slender  covering  about 
their  waist,  and  married  women  the  same.  Young  men  and 
young  women,  till  long  past  the  age  of  puberty,  are  totally 
uncovered,  and  in  constant  conversation  and  habits  with  each 
other,  in  woods  and  solitudes,  free  from  constraint,  and  without 
any  punishment  annexed  to  the  transgression."  —  Bruce's  Africa, 
Vol.  II.,  page  558. 


"  The  natives  came  down  to  the  boats.  They  are  something 
superlative  in  the  way  of  savages;  the  men  as  naked  as  they 
came  into  the  world ;  their  bodies  rubbed  with  ashes,  and  their 
hair  stained  red  by  a  plaster  of  ashes  and  cow's  urine.  These 
fellows  are  the  most  unearthly-looking  devils  I  ever  saw,  —  there 
is  no  other  expression  for  them.  The  unmarried  women  are  also 
entirely  naked ;  the  married  have  a  fringe  made  of  grass  around 
their  loins."  —  Baker's  Great  Basin  of  the  Nile,  page  42. 


"  There  is  little  difficulty  in  describing  the  toilet  of  the  natives, 
—  that  of  the  men  being  simplified  by  the  sole  covering  of  the 
head,  the  body  being  entirely  nude.  It  is  curious  to  observe 
among  these  wild  savages  the  consummate  vanity  displayed  in  their 


76      XAXEDSESS)    SHAMELESSNESSj  ASD  PEOSTITUT/oy. 

head-dresses.  Every  tribe  has  a  distinct  and  unchanging  fa 
for  dressing  the  hair ;  and  so  elaborate  is  the  coiffure  that  hair- 
dressing  is  reduced  to  a  science.  European  ladies  would  be 
startled  at  the  fact,  that  to  perfect  the  coiffure  of  a  man  requires 
a  period  of  from  eight  to  ten  years.*1 —  Baker  $  Great  Login  of  ike 
Nile,  page  42. 


'*  Among  the  worst  characteristics  of  Kaffir  society,  is  its  great 
incontinence.  Most  young  women  are  frequently  and  forcibly 
violated  before  marriage ;  and  widows  are  considered  public  prop- 
erty. When  the  chiefs  wish  to  carry  any  particular  point,  they 
seize  a  number  of  young  women,  and  give  them  up  to  their  wild 
warriors.  This  I  do  not  dunk  has  been  noticed  before  in  any 
account  of  the  Kaffirs ;  and,  with  '  wholesale  and  periodical  rape,* 
constitutes  a  very  black  feature  in  their  character.  Adultery  also 
is  frequent  among  them ;  and  the  fine  is  merely  a  cow.  The  fol- 
lowing I  know  to  be  a  fact :  A  Kaffir  coveted  a  handsome  cow,  or 
one  with  a  musical  voice,  the  property  of  his  neighbor ;  he  ordered 
his  wife  to  throw  herself  in  his  neighbor's  way ;  the  guilty  pah: 
were  detected ;  and  the  injured  husband  secured  the  object  of  his 
desires.*'  —  Alexander'*  Africa,  Vol.  I.,  page  397. 


"  The  women  clothe  themselves  better  than  the  Balonda,  but 
the  men  go  in  puris  naturalibns.  They  walk  about  without  the 
smallest  sense  of  shame.  They  have  even  lost  the  tradition  of 
the  *  fig-leaf.*  I  asked  a  fine,  large-bodied  old  man  if  he  did  not 
think  it  would  be  better  to  adopt  a  little  covering.  He  looked 
with  a  pitying  leer,  and  laughed  with  surprise  at  my  thinking  him 
at  all  indecent;  he  evidently  considered  himself  above  such  weak 
superstition.  I  told  him  that,  on  my  return,  I  should  have  my 
family  with  me,  and  no  one  must  come  near  us  in  that  state. 
•What  shall  we  put  on, — we  having  no  clothing?  It  was  con-^ 
sidered  a  good  joke  when  I  told  them  that,  if  they  had  nothing 
else,  they  must  put  on  a  bunch  of  grass.** — Livingstone'*  Africa, 
page  590. 


"  There  is  no  difference  between  the  sexes  during  their  early 


SBAHELESSNESSi  AST)  PROSTITUTION.      77 

rears.  A  sense  of  shame  or  modesty  seems  altogether  unknown 
or  disregarded ;  nor  is  it  unusual  to  find  ten  or  a  dozen  of  both 
genders  huddled  promiscuously  beneath  a  roof  whose  walls  an 
not  more  than  fifteen  feet  square.  True  to  his  nature,  a  Vey 
bnshman  rises  in  the  morning  to  swallow  his  rice,  and  «am»l» 
back  to  his  mat,  which  is  invariably  placed  in  the  sunshine,  where 
he  basks  till  moontide,  when  another  wife  serves  him  a  second 
meal.  The  remainder  of  the  daylight  is  passed  either  in  gossip 
or  a  second  siesta,  till,  at  sundown,  his  other  wives  wash  his  body, 
furnish  a  third  meal,  and  stretch  his  wearied  limbs  before  a  blaz- 
ing fire 'to  refresh  him  for  the  toils  of  the  succeeding  day.  In  fact 
die  slaves  of  a  household,  together  with  its  females,  form  the 
entire  working  class  of  Africa,'1  —  Canoft  Ttctxty  Tears  of  am,  Afri- 
can Slaver,  page  430. 


"  Women  in  Africa  will  frequently  bathe  in  public,  and  before 
strangers,  without  the  slightest  shame.  .  .  .  Young  men 
erroneously  suppose  that  there  is  something  voluptuous  in  the  ex- 
cessive dishabille  of  an  equatorial  girL  On  the  contrary,  nothing 
is  so  moral  and  so  repulsive  as  nakedness.  Dress  must  have  been 
the  invention  of  some  clever  woman  to  ensnare  the  passions  of 
men."  —  Readet  Savage  Africa,  page  424. 


"The  women  in  all  the  tribes  are  much  given  to  intrigue,  and 
chastity  is  an  unknown  virtue." — D*  duuU*s  Equatorial  Africa* 


"  Some  of  their  customs  are  so  obscene  that  even  the  record  of 
them  would  be  inadmissible  here.11  —  Talda*  Africa,  Vol.  XT., 
page  163. 


"  This  freedom  of  the  women  I  did  not  much  relish,  and  desired 
my  servants  to  ask  them  what  they  wanted.  They  replied  that 
their '  object  was  to  obtain  a  dram  of  rum,  and  offer  themselves 
as  wive?,  saying  that  every  great  man  had  a  number  of  wives, 
and,  knowing  me  to  be  a  stranger  with  no  wife,  they  supposed 
7* 


78      NAKEDNESS,   SHAMELESSNESS,  AND  PROSTITUTION. 

that  of  course  I  wanted  a  few."  —  Duncan's  Africa,  Vol.  I.,  page 
172. 


4  The  women  of  Inasamet  not  only  made  the  first  advances, 
but,  what  is  worse,  they  were  offered  even  by  the  men, — their 
brethren  or  husbands.  Even  those  among  the  men  whose  behavior 
was  least  vile  and  revolting  did  not  cease  urging  us  to  engage 
with  the  women,  who  failed  not  to  present  themselves  soon  after- 
wards. It  could  scarcely  be  taken  as  a  joke.  Some  of  the 
women  were  immensely  fat,  particularly  in  the  hinder  regions." — 
Earth's  Africa,  Vol.  I.,  page  408. 


'The  chief  jnst  mentioned  was  in  a  certain  degree  subject  to 
the  rulers  of  Bornu ;  but  it  seemed  rather  an  ironical  assertion  that 
this  prince  would  be  pleased  with  the  arrival  of  the  expedition. 
While  describing  his  reception  at  the  court  of  the  chief,  the  scout 
indulged  in  a  lively  description  of  the  customs  prevalent  among 
these  people.  His  majesty,  he  said,  used  to  indulge  in  amorous 
intercourse  with  his  female  slaves,  of  whom  he  had  two  hundred, 
before  the  eyes  of  his  people,  —  an  account  which  was  rather  con- 
firmed by  Belal,  who  had  been  his  host  several  times.  Belal, 
who  was  a  very  jovial  old  fellow,  also  stated  that  this  little  prince 
was  not  jealous  of  the  favors  bestowed  by  his  female  partners 
upon  his  guests,  but,  on  the  contrary,  that  he  himself  voluntarily 
gave  them  up  to  them."  —  Earth's  Africa,  Vol.,  II.,  page  216. 


"The  people  in  general  are  very  libidinous,  but  their  ability 
answers  not  their  desire  ;  however,  their  too  frequent  actions  and 
their  dealing  with  variety  of  women  draw  upon  them  no  small 
inconveniences.  Nor  do  the  women  fall  short  of  the  men  in  their 
unchastity,  wholly  giving  themselves  up  to  venereal  exercises; 
and  if  continually  troubled  with  a  furor  uterinus,  at  all  times  chew 
and  eat  such  herbs  and  barks  of  trees  as  are  the  greatest  incen- 
tives to  heighten  their  desires  to  almost  hourly  congresses."  — 
Ogilby^s  Africa,  page  390. 


DRUNKENNESS  AND   DEBAUCHERY.  79 

CHAPTER    X. 

DRUNKENNESS  AND  DEBAUCHERY  IN  NEGROLAND. 

"  THE  large  quantity  of  palm-trees  in  and  around  the  village 
furnishes  the  inhabitants  of  Mokaba  with  a  ready  supply  of  their 
favorite  drink,  palm-wine ;  for,  as  I  have  said  before,  they  are  a 
merry  people,  and  make  a  regular  practice  of  getting  drunk 
every  day,  as  long  as  the  wine  is  obtainable.  I  often  saw  them 
climb  the  trees  in  early  morning,  and  take  deep  draughts  from  the 
calabashes  suspended  there.  Like  most  drunken  people  they  be- 
come quarrelsome  ;  and  being  a  lively  and  excitable  race,  many 
frays  occur.  Happily  the  palm-wine  season  lasts  only  a  few 
months  in  the  year;  it  was  the  height  of  the  drunken  season 
when  I  was  at  Mokaba.  I  saw  very  few  men  who  had  not  scars, 
or  the  marks  of  one  or  more  wounds,  received  in  their  merry- 
making scrimmages.  Their  holidays  are  very  frequent.  Un- 
limited drinking  is  the  chief  amusement,  together  with  dancing, 
tarn-tamming,  and  wild  uproar,  which  last  all  night." — Du  Chail- 
lu's  Asliango-Land,  page  260. 

"  The  king,  as  usual,  was  drunk  when  I  arrived.  Indeed,  he 
was  too  tipsy  to  stand  on  his  legs ;  nevertheless,  he  was  bullying 
and  boasting  in  a  loud  tone  of  voice.  I  had  not  been  in  his  place 
long  before  he  ordered  another  calabash  full  of  palm-wine,  and 
drank  off  about  a  gallon  of  it.  This  finished  him  up  for  the  clay ; 
he  fell  back  into  the  arms  of  his  loving  wives,  ejaculating  many 
times,  '  I  am  a  big  king  !•  I  am  a  big  king ! '  The  voice  soon  be- 
came inaudible,  and  he  fell  asleep."  —  Du  CliailliCs  Ashango-Land, 
page  41. 


"  The  king's  usual  way  of  living  is  to  sleep  all  day,  till  toward 
sunset ;  then  he  gets  up  to  drink,  and  goes  to  sleep  again  till  mid- 
night ;  then  he  rises  and  eats,  and  if  he  has  any  strong  liquors, 
will  sit  and  drink  till  daylight,  and  then  eat,  and  go  to  sleep  again. 
When  he  is  well  stocked  with  liquor,  he  will  sit  and  drink  for  five 
or  six  days  together,  and  not  eat  one  morsel  of  anything  in  all 


80  WIGHT  CAROUSALS,  ETC.,  IN  NEGEOLAND. 

that  time.  It  is  to  that  insatiable  thirst  of  his  after  brandy  that 
his  subjects'  freedom  and  families  are  in  so  precarious  a  situation  ; 
for  he  very  often  goes  with  some  of  his  troops  by  a  town  in  the 
daytime,  and  returns  in  the  night,  and  sets  fire  to  three  parts  of 
it,  and  sets  guards  at  the  fourth  to  seize  the  people  as  they  run 
out  from  the  fire.  He  then  ties  their  arms  behind  them,  and 
inarches  them  to  the  place  where  he  sells  them  into  slavery." — 
Moore's  Inland  Parts  of  Africa,  page  87. 


"The  virtue  of  chastity  I  do  not  believe  to  exist  in  Wawa. 
Even  the  widow  Zuma  lets  out  her  female  slaves  for  hire,  like  the 
rest  of  the  people  of  the  town.  Neither  is  sobriety  held  as  a  vir- 
tue. I  never  was  in  a  place  in  my  life  where  drunkenness  was  so 
general.  Governor,  priest,  and  layman,  and  even  some  of  the 
ladies,  drink  to  excess.  I  was  pestered  for  three  or  four  days  by 
the  governor's  daughter,  who  used  to  come  several  times  in  a  day, 
painted  and  bedizened  in  the  highest  style  of  Wawa  fashion,  but 
always  half  tipsy.  I  could  only  get  rid  of  her  by  telling  her  that 
I  prayed  and  looked  at  the  stars  all  night,  and  never  drank  any- 
thing stronger  than  water.  She  always  departed  in  a  flood  of 
tears.  —  Clappertori's  Africa,  page  129. 


CHAPTER    XI. 

NIGHT  CAROUSALS,  AND  NOISY  AND  NONSENSICAL  ACTIONS  IN  NE- 
GROLAND. 

"  THE  people  usually  show  their  joy  and  work  off  their  excite- 
ment in  dances  and  songs.  The  dance  consists  of  the  men  stand- 
ing nearly  naked  in  a  circle,  with  clubs  or  small  battle-axes  in 
their  hands,  and  each  roaring  at  the  loudest  pitch  of  his  voice, 
while  they  simultaneously  lift  one  leg,  stamp  heavily  twice  with 


NIGHT  CAROUSALS,  ETC.,  IN  NEG  ROLAND.  81 

it,  then  lift  the  other  and  give  one  stamp  with  that;  this  is  the 
only  movement  in  common.  The  arms  and  head  are  often  thrown 
about,  also,  in  every  direction ;  and  all  this  time  the  roaring  is 
kept  up  with  the  utmost  possible  vigor;  the  continual  stamping 
makes  a  cloud  of  dust  ascend,  and  they  leave  a  deep  ring  in  the 
ground  where  they  stood.  If  the  same  were  witnessed  in  the 
lunatic  asylum  it  would  be  nothing  out  of  the  way,  and  quite  ap- 
propriate even,  as  a  means  of  letting  off  the  excessive  excitement 
of  the  brain ;  but  here  gray-headed  men  joined  in  the  perform- 
ance with  as  much  zest  as  others  whose  youth  might  be  an  excuse 
for  making  the  perspiration  stream  off  their  bodies  with  the  exer- 
tion."—  Livingstone's  Africa,  page  245. 


"  The  villagers,  especially  in  the  remoter  districts,  were  even 
more  troublesome,  noisy,  and  inquisitive  than  the  "Wagogo.  A 
'notable  passion  of  wonder'  appeared  in  them.  We  felt  like 
baited  bears ;  we  were  mobbed  in  a  moment,  and  scrutinized  from 
every  point  of  view  by  them.  The  inquisitive  wretches  stood  on 
tiptoe ;  they  squatted  on  their  hams ;  they  bent  sideways ;  and 
they  thrust  foilh  their  necks  like  hissing  geese  to  vaiy  the  pros- 
pect."—  Burton's  Africa,  page  359. 


"On  the  spot  were  the  people  assembled,  with  every  instru- 
ment capable  of  making  a  noise  which  could  be  procured  in  the 
whole  town.  They  had  formed  themselves  into  a  large  treble 
circle,  and  continued  running  round  with  amazing  velocity,  cry- 
ing, shouting,  and  groaning  with  all  their  might.  They  tossed 
and  flung  their  heads  about,  twisted  their  bodies  into  all  manner 
of  contortions,  jumped  into  the  air,  stamped  with  their  feet  on  the 
ground,  and  flourished  their  hands  above  their  heads.  No  scene 
in  the  romance  of  Robinson  Crusoe  was  so  wild  and  savage  as 
this.  Little  boys  and  girls  were  outside  the  ring,  running  to  and 
fro,  and  clashing  empty  calabashes  against  each  other ;  groups  of 
men  were  blowing  on  trumpets,  which  produced  a  harsh  and  dis- 
cordant sound ;  some  were  employed  in  beating  old  drums ;  oth- 
ers again  were  blowing  on  bullock's  horns ;  and,  in  the  short  in- 
tervals between  the  rapid  succession  of  all  these  fiend-like  noises, 
was  heard  one  more  dismal  than  the  rest,  proceeding  from  an  iron 


82  INHOSPITALITY  TO  STRANGERS,  ETC. 

tube,  accompanied  by  the  clinking  of  chains,  —  indeed,  every- 
thing that  could  increase  the  uproar  was  put  in  requisition  on  this 
memorable  occasion  ;  nor  did  it  cease  till  midnight.  Never  have 
we  witnessed  so  extraordinary  a  scene  as  this.  If  a  European, 
a  stranger  to  Africa,  were  to  be  placed  of  a  sudden  in  the  midst 
of  these  people,  he  would  imagine  himself  to  be  among  a  legion 
of  demons,  holding  a  revel  over  a  fallen  spirit,  so  peculiarly  un- 
earthly, wild,  and  horrifying  was.  the  appearance  of  the  dancing 
group,  and  the  clamor  which  they  made."  —  Lander's  Travels  in 
Africa,  Vol.  L,  page  366. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

INHOSPITALITY  TO  STBANGEHS,   BEGGING,  EXTORTION,  AND  ROB- 
BERY IX  NEGROLAND. 

"  GRATITUDE  with  the  African  is  not  even  a  sense  of  prospective 
favor.  He  looks  upon  a  benefit  as  the  weakness  of  his  benefactor 
and  his  own  strength ;  consequently  he  will  not  recognize  even 
the  hand  that  feeds  him.  He  will,  perhaps,  lament  for  a  night 
the  death  of  a  parent  or  a  child,  but  the  morrow  will  find  him  thor- 
oughly comforted.  The  name  of  hospitality,  except  for  interested 
motives,  is  unknown  to  him.  •  What  will  you  give  me  ? '  is  his 
first  question.  To  a  stranger  entering  a  village  the  worst  hut  is 
assigned,  and,  if  he  complain,  the  answer  is  that  he  can  find  en- 
camping-ground  outside.  Instead  of  treating  him  like  a  guest, 
which  the  Arab  Bedouin  would  hold  to  be  a  point  of  pride,  of 
honor,  his  host  compels  him  to  pay  and  prepay  every  article ; 
otherwise  he  might  starve  in  the  midst  of  plenty."  —  Burton's  Af- 
rica, page  490. 

"  The  curiosity  of  these  people,  and  the  little  ceremony  with 


INHOSPITALITY  TO  STRANGERS,  ETC.  83 

which  they  gratify  it,  are,  at  times,  most  troublesome.  A 
stranger  must  be  stared  at ;  total  apathy  is  the  only  remedy ;  if 
the  victim  lose  his  temper,  or  attempt  to  dislodge  them,  he  will 
find  it  like  disturbing  a  swarm  of  bees.  They  will  come  for  miles 
to  '  sow  gape-seed.'  If  the  tent-fly  be  closed,  they  will  peer  and 
peep  from  below,  complaining  loudly  against  the  occupant ;  and, 
if  further  pi-evented,  they  may  proceed  to  violence.  On  the  road 
hosts  of  idlers,  especially  women,  boys,  and  girls,  will  follow  the 
caravan  for  hours.  It  is  a  truly  offensive  spectacle,  —  these  un- 
couth figures,  running  at  a  '  gymnastic  pace,'  half  clothed,  except 
with  grease,  with  pendent  bosoms  shaking  in  the  air,  and  cries 
that  resemble  the  howls  of  beasts  more  than,  any  effort  of  human 
articulation."  —  Burton's  Africa,  page  496. 


"To  travellers,  the  African  is,  of  course,  less  civil  than  to  mer- 
chants, from  whom  he  expects  to  gain  something.  He  will  refuse 
a  mouthful  of  water  out  of  his  abundance  to  a  man  dying  of  thirst ; 
utterly  unsympathizing,  he  will  not  stretch  out  a  hand  to  save 
another's  goods,  though  worth  thousands  of  dollars."  —  Burton's 
Africa,  page  491. 


"  The  traveller  cannot  practise  pity ;  he  is  ever  in  the  dilemma 
of  maltreating  or  being  maltreated.  Were  he  to  deal  civilly 
and  liberally  with  this  people,  he  would  starve ;  it  is  vain  to  offer 
a  price  for  even  the  necessaries  of  life ;  it  would  certainly  be  re» 
fused,  because  more  is  wanted,  and  so  on  be}'ond  the  bounds  of 
possibility." —  Burtorfs  Africa,  page  88. 


"  The  Wagogo  are  importunate  beggars,  who  specify  then?  long 
list  of  wants  without  stint  or  shame ;  their  principal  demand  is  to- 
bacco, which  does  not  grow  in  the  land ;  and  they  resemble  the 
Somal,  who  never  sight  a  stranger  without  stretching  out  the 
hand  for  '  bori.'  The  men  are  idle  and  debauched,  spending 
their  days  in  unbroken  revelry  and  drunkenness,  while  the  girls 
and  women  hoe  the  fields,  and  the  boys  fend,  the  flqp^s,  and 
herds," -=-  Burton's  Africa ,  page  215. 


84  INHOSPITALITY  TO  STRANGERS,   ETC. 

"  In  proportion  as  the  traveller  advances  into  the  interior,  he 
finds  the  people  less  humane,  or  rather  less  human.  The  Wavinza, 
the  Wajiji,  and  other  lakist  tribes,  much  resemble  one  another. 
They  are  extortionate,  violent,  and  revengeful  barbarians ;  no 
Muyamwezi  dares  to  travel  alone  through  their  territories,  and 
small  parties  are  ever  in  danger  of  destruction."  —  Burton's  Africa, 
page  498. 


M  From  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  all  classes  are  most  pertina- 
cious beggars.  Whatsoever  is  seen  is  surely  demanded, — guns, 
knives,  scissors,  beads,  cloth,  mirrors,  and  dollars.  The  love  of 
acquiring  property  stifles  every  sense  of  shame ;  and  no  com- 
punction is  felt  in  asking  for  the  cloak  from  off  the  back,  or  in 
carrying  it  away  during  a  pitiless  storm."  —  Harris's  Adventures 
in  Africa,  page  299. 


"  They  are  a  people  remarkable  for  their  disregard  for  truth,  —  a 
•wickedness  which  I  regret  to  state  I  found  very  prevalent  in  South- 
ern Africa.  They  are  also  great  beggars,  generally  commencing 
by  soliciting  for  '  trexels,'  —  a  trexel  being  a  pound  of  tea  or  coffee. 
Knowing  the  gallantry  of  our  nation,  they  affirm  this  to  be  a  pres- 
ent for  a  wife  or  daughter,  whom  they  represent  as  being  poorly. 
If  this  is  granted,  they  continue  their  importunities,  successively 
fancying  your  hat,  neckcloth,  and  coat." — Cumming's  Africa,  Vol. 
J.,  page  128. 


"I  was  extremely  anxious  to  get  away  from  this  place,  as  I 
was  sorely  pestered  by  begging  parties, — the  inhabitants  of 
Wuruo  and  Sokoto  being  the  most  troublesome  beggars  in  the 
world."  —  Earth's  Africa,  Vol.  III.,  page  137. 


"  The  people  are  in  general  faithless  and  very  covetous,  and 
they  never  make  a  present  without  expecting  to  receive  three  times 
as  rnucb,  in  return."—  Valdez's  Africa,  Vol.  II.,  page  208. 


1NHOSP1TAL1TY  TO  STRANGERS,  ETC.  85 

"  I  retired  to  my  hut  in  disgust.  This  afternoon  a  messenger 
arrived  from  the  king  with  twenty-four  small  pieces  of  straw,  cut 
into  lengths  of  about  four  inches.  These  he  laid  carefully  in  a 
row,  and  explained  that  Speke  had  given  that  number  of  presents, 
whereas  I  had  only  given  ten,  — the  latter  figure  being  carefully 
exemplified  by  ten  pieces  of  straw ;  he  wished  to  know  '  why  I 
did  not  give  him  the  same  number  as  he  had  received  from 
Speke.'  This  miserable,  grasping,  lying  coward,  is  nevertheless 
a  king,  and  the  success  of  my  expedition  depends  upon  him." — 
Baker's  Great  Basin  of  the  Nile,  page  313. 


"True  to  his  natural  instincts,  the  king  commenced  begging, 
and  being  much  struck  with  my  Highland  costume,  he  de- 
manded it  as  a  proof  of  friendship,  saying,  that  if  I  refused  I  could 
not  be  his  friend.  My  watch,  compass,  and  double  Fletcher  rifle 
were  asked  for  in  their  turn  ;  all  of  which  I  refused  to  give  him. 
He  appeared  much  annoyed,  therefore  I  presented  him  with  a 
pound-canister  of  powder,  a  box  of  caps,  and  a  few  bullets.  He 
replied,  '  What's  the  use  of  the  ammunition,  if  you  won't  give  me 
your  rifle  ? '  I  explained  that  I  had  already  given  him  a  gun, 
and  that  he  had  a  rifle  of  Speke's.  Disgusted  with  his  importu- 
nity, I  rose  to  depart,  telling  him  that  I  should  not  return  to  visit 
him,  as  I  did  not  believe  he  was  the  real  Kamrasi.  I  had  heard 
that  Kamrasi  was  a  great  king,  but  that  he  was  a  mere  beggar, 
and  was  doubtless  an  impostor."  —  Baker's  Great  Basin  of  the  Nile, 
page  386. 


"Nothing  seems  to  us  so  incommensurable  with  the  trouble, 
fatigue,  and  danger  of  African  travel  as  the  small  success  which 
usually  rewards  the  explorer  of  this  impenetrable  continent.  In 
other  countries  it  has  been  said  you  ought  to  travel  alone  on  foot, 
or  en  grand  seigneur,  if  you  wish  to  understand  the  people  or  their 
customs.  In  Africa  either  method  is  impossible  to  any  purpose. 
In  its  savage  equatorial  districts  no  European  can  travel  alone  ; 
his  necessary  baggage  calls  for  a  small  company  of  followers. 
He  must  trade  and  he  must  defend  his  goods.  He  cannot  avoid 
arousing  the  cupidity  of  every  tribe  with  which  he  comes  in  con- 
tact, and  yet  he  must  depend  upon  their  good-will  for  his  chance 


86  INHOSP1TAL1TT  TO  STRANGERS,   ETC. 

of  seeing  any  other.  Infinitely  more  strange  to  them  than  they 
can  be  to  him,  he  is  at  once  associated  with  any  misfortune  which 
has  happened  to  them,  either  shortly  before  !his  arrival,  during 
his  stay  with  them,  or  following  close  upon  his  departure.  He 
becomes  the  object  of  constant  intrigues,  and  of  unceasing,  if 
simple  efforts  at  extortion.  How  can  it  be  otherwise  ?  He  carries 
about  with  him  what,  in  the  eyes  of  the  savages  by  whom  he  is 
surrounded,  is  wealth  greater  than  that  in  Aladdin's  cave.  Only 
by  the  rarest  good  fortune  can  he  hope  to  escape  from  some  con- 
tingency which  will  rob  him  not  only  of  all  he  possesses,  but  also 
of  most  of  the  tangible  results  of  his  labors,  if  not  of  his  life."  — 
Westminster  Review,  1867. 


"  When  they  can  no  longer  ask,  they  begin  to  borrow,  with  the 
firm  resolution  of  never  repaying ;  and,  what  is  worst  of  all,  when, 
they  make  a  present,  they  hold  it  a  deadly  offence  not  to  receive 
at  least  double  the  value  in  return."  —  Murray's  African  Discover- 
ies, page  69. 


"  In  begging,  the  South  Africans  are  most  ceaseless  and  impor- 
tunate. At  Mr.  Burchell's  first  entrance,  they  observed  a  certain 
degree  of  ceremony,  and  only  one  solitary  cry  for  tobacco  was 
heard ;  but  this  feeling  of  delicacy  or  decorum  soon  gave  way. 
Mattivi  himself  made  a  private  request  that  the  presents  intended 
for  him  should  not  be  seen  by  the  people  at  large,  by  whom  they 
would  soon  be  all  begged  away.  They  seemed  to  have  more 
pride  in  what  they  procured  by  solicitation  than  in  a  thing  of 
greater  value  if  received  as  a  spontaneous  gift."  —  Murray's  Afri- 
can Discoveries,  page  222. 


"  Tjopopa  would  spend  whole  days  at  our  camp  in  the  most  ab- 
solute idleness  and  apathy,  teasing  us  with  begging  for  everything 
he  saw.  Like  all  Damaras,  he  had  a  perfect  mania  for  tobacco, 
and  considered  no  degradation  too  deep  provided  he  could  obtain 
a  few  inches  of  narcotic  weed.  .  .  .  He  was  supposed  to  have  no 
less  than  twenty  wives,  — two  of  whom,  I  found  to  my  astonish- 
ment, were  mother  and  daughter.  I  have  since  ascertained  that 


INHOSPITALITY  TO  STRANGERS,  ETC.  87 

it  is  by  no  means  an  unusual  practice  amongst  this  demoralized 
nation."  —  Anderssori's  Africa,  page  135. 


"  It  often  came  about  that  our  house  was  like  a  shop  where 
there  are  customers  in  abundance,  except  that  in  our  case  they 
were  customers  who  wished  to  have  everything  for  nothing.  One 
wanted  a  hatchet,  another  a  garment,  a  third  needles,  a  fourth  a 
dollar,  a  fifth  salt  or  pepper,  a  sixth  physic ;  and  so,  in  one  day, 
we  sometimes  had  fifteen  or  twenty  applicants,  all  begging,  and 
often  after  a  very  cunning  fashion."  —  Krapfs  Africa,  page  175. 


"The  chief  now  said  something  to  his  boys,  and  then  retired 
out  of  sight.  Immediately  a  dozen  or  more  boys  were  in  chase 
of  an  unfortunate  rooster ;  every  boy  or  girl  who  came  up  was 
pressed  into  service,  so  that  soon  nearly  all  the  children  of  the 
town  were  engaged  in  the  chase.  Finally  the  rooster  was  cap- 
tured, and  taken  to  the  chief,  who  now  came  forward  and,  with  a 
low  bow,  presented  it  to  me.  We  were  now  allowed  to  proceed. 
You  may  be  sure,  if  you  are  acquainted  with  the  African  charac- 
ter, that  the  chief  did  not  fail  to  pay  me  a  visit  soon  after,  when  I 
had  to  make  him  a  return  present  of  four  or  five  times  the  value 
of  his  fowl.  Nor  was  this  sufficient,  but  he  must  come  four  or 
five  times,  giving  me  to  understand  he  wanted  something."  — 
Scotfs  Day  Dawn  in  Africa,  page  108. 


"  Both  men  and  women  give  themselves  wholly  up,  as  it  were, 
to  wantonness ;  and  toward  strangers  they  are  churlish  and  uncivil, 
not  only  exacting  from  them  beyond  reason,  but  defrauding  them 
by  many  subtle  and  sly  inventions." —  Ogilby's  Africa,page  521. 


"  I  was  about  to  take  my  leave,  when  the  King  of  Bondou, 
desiring  me  to  stop  awhile,  began  a  long  preamble  in  favor  of 
the  whites,  extolling  their  immense  wealth  and  good  dispositions. 
He  next  proceeded  to  an  eulogium  on  my  blue  coat,  of  which  the 
yellow  buttons  seemed  particularly  to  catch  his  fancy ;  and  he 
concluded  by  entreating  me  to  present  him  with  it,  assuring  me, 


88  INHOSPITALITY  TO  STRANGERS,  ETC. 

for  ray  consolation  under  the  loss  of  it,  that  he  would  wear  it  on 
all  public  occasions,  and  inform  every  one  who  saw  it  of  my  great 
liberality  toward  him.  The  request  of  an  African  prince,  in  his 
own  dominions,  particularly  when  made  to  a  stranger,  comes 
little  short  of  a  command.  It  is  only  a  way  of  obtaining  by  gentle 
means  what  he  can,  if  he  pleases,  obtain  by  force ;  and,  as  it  was 
against  my  interest  to  offend  him  by  a  refusal,  I  very  quietly  took 
off  my  coat,  the  only  good  one  in  my  possession,  and  laid  it  at  his 
feet."  —  Mungo  Park's  Travels  in  Africa,  page  44. 


"Another  drew  his  knife,  and,  seizing  upon  a  metal  button 
which  remained  upon  my  waistcoat,  cut  it  off  and  put  it  in  his 
pocket.  Their  intentions  were  now  obvious,  and  I  thought  that 
the  easier  they  were  permitted  to  rob  me  of  everything,  the  less  I 
had  to  fear.  I,  therefore,  allowed  them  to  search  my  pockets 
without  resistance,  and  examine  every  part  of  my  apparel,  which 
they  did  with  the  most  scrupulous  exactness.  But  observing  that 
I  had  one  waistcoat  under  another,  they  insisted  that  I  should  cast 
them  both  off;  and  at  last,  to  make  sure  work,  they  stripped  me 
quite  naked.  Even  my  half  boots  (though  the  sole  of  one  of  them 
was  tied  on  to  my  foot  with  a  broken  bridle-rein)  were  minutely 
inspected.  While  they  were  examining  the  plunder,  I  begged 
them,  with  great  earnestness,  to  return  my  pocket-compass ;  but 
when  I  pointed  it  out  to  them,  as  it  was  lying  on  the  ground,  one 
of  them,  thinking  I  was  about  to  take  it  up,  cocked  his  musket, 
and  swore  that  he  would  lay  me  dead  on  the  spot  if  I  presumed  to 
put  a  hand  upon  it.  After  this,  some  of  them  went  away  with  my 
horse,  and  the  remainder  stood  considering  whether  they  should 
leave  me  quite  naked,  or  allow  me  something  to  shelter  me  from 
the  sun.  They  returned  me  the  worst  of  the  two  shirts  and  a 
pair  of  trousers;  and,  as  they  went  away,  one  of  them  threw  back 
my  hat,  in  the  crown  of  which  I  kept  my  memorandums;  and 
this  was  probably  the  reason  he  did  not  wish  to  keep  it.  After 
they  were  gone,  I  sat  for  some  time  looking  around  me  with 
amazement  and  terror.  Whichever  way  I  turned,  nothing  ap- 
peared but  danger  and  difficulty.  I  saw  myself  in  the  midst  of  a 
vast  wilderness,  in  the  depth  of  the  rainy  season,  naked  and  alone, 
surrounded  by  savage  animals,  and  men  still  more  savage.  I 
was  five  hundred  miles  from  the  nearest  European  settlement. 


WRANGLING,  LAWLESSNESS,   PENURY,  ETC.  89 

All  these  circumstances  crowded  at  once  on  my  recollection,  and 
I  confess  that  my  spirits  began  to  fail  me.  I  considered  my  fate 
as  certain,  and  that  I  had  no  alternative  but  to  lie  down  and 
perish."  —  Mungo  Park's  Travels  in  Africa,  page  113. 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

WRANGLING,  LAWLESSNESS,  PENURY,  AND  MISERY  IN  NEGROLAND. 

"  AFRICA  from  the  earliest  ages  has  been  the  most  conspicuous 
theatre  of  crime  and  of  wrong ;  where  social  life  has  lost  the 
traces  of  primitive  simplicity,  without  rising  to  order,  principle, 
or  refinement ;  where  fraud  and  violence  are  formed  into  national 
systems,  and  man  trembles  at  the  sight  of  his  fellow-man.  For 
centuries  this  continent  has  seen  thousands  of  her  unfortunate 
children  dragged  in  chains  over  its  deserts  and  across  the  ocean, 
to  spend  their  lives  in  foreign  and  distant  bondage.  Superstition, 
tyranny,  anarchy,  and  the  opposing  interests  of  numberless  petty 
states,  maintain  a  constant  and  destructive  warfare  in  this  suffer- 
ing portion  of  the  earth."  —  Murray's  African  Discoveries,  page  21. 


"  Grumbling  and  dissatisfied,  they  never  do  business  without  a 
grievance.  Revenge  is  a  ruling  passion,  as  the  many  rancorous 
fratricidal  wars  that  have  prevailed  between  kindred  clans,  even 
for  a  generation,  prove.  Retaliation  and  vengeance  are,  in  fact, 
their  great  agents  of  moral  control.  Judged  by  the  test  of  death, 
the  East  African  is  a  hard-hearted  man,  who  seems  to  ignore  all 
the  charities  of  father,  son,  and  brother.  .  .  .  Their  squab- 
bling and  clamor  pass  description ;  they  are  never  happy  except 
when  in  dispute.  After  a  rapid  plunge  into  excitement,  the 
brawlers  alternately  advance  and  recede,  pointing  the  finger 
of  threat,  howling  and  screaming,  cursing  and  using  terms  of 
insult  which  an  inferior  ingenuity, — not  want  of  will, — causes 
8* 


90  WRANGLING,   LAWLESSNESS,   PENURY,   ETC. 

to  fall  far  short  of  the  Asiatic's  model  vituperation.    After  abusing 
each  other  to  their  full,  both  parties  usualty  burst  into  a  loud 
laugh  or  a  burst  of  sobs.    After  a  cuff,  a  man  will  cover  his  face 
with  his  hands  and  cry  as  if  his  heart  would  break."  —  Burton's 
Africa,  page  492. 


"  The  children  have  all  the  frowning  and  unprepossessing  look 
of  their  parents;  they  reject  little  civilities,  and  seem  to  spend 
life  in  disputes,  biting  and  clawing  like  wild-cats.  There  appears 
to  be  little  family  affection  in  this  undemonstrative  race." —  Bur- 
ton's Africa,  page  323. 


"  Property  among  them  is  insecure ;  a  man  has  always  a  vested 
right  in  his  sister's  children,  and  when  he  dies  his  brothers  and 
relations  carefully  plunder  his  widow  and  orphans."  —  Burton's 
Africa,  page  97. 


"  All  the  natives,  escorts,  guides,  carriers,  slaves,  and  villagers, 
are  as  bad  as  bad  can  be ;  idle,  cowardly,  thievish,  full  of  every 
kind  of  trick  and  deception.  Your  own  hired  people  are  insub- 
ordinate, quarrelsome,  and  ready  to  desert  at  a  moment's  no- 
tice. They  stop  when  they  please,  hurry  on  when  you  wish  them 
to  go  slow,  and  creep  when  you  want  them  to  hasten,  always 
grumbling,  and  getting  drunk  whenever  they  can."  —  Maebrair's 
Africa,  page  352. 


"  The  Bushman,  who  has  lost  his  wife  by  elopement,  walks  out 
with  his  gun  and  shoots  the  first  man  whom  he  meets.  He  then 
proclaims  that  he  has  done  this  because  a  man  has  run  away  with 
his  wife.  The  clansmen  of  the  murdered  man  are  enraged,  not 
against  the  husband,  —  who  has  simply  complied  with  a  usage  of 
society,  —  but  because  the  duty  of  the  avenger  is  now  cast  upon 
them.  As  the  gay  Lothario  is  out  of  their  reach,  they  kill  a  man 
belonging  to  the  next  village ;  his  friends  retaliate  on  their  unsus- 
pecting neighbors ;  and  so  rolls  on  this  ball  of  destruction  till  the 
whole  country  is  on  the  alert.  The  gates  of  all  the  villages  are 


WRANGLING)   LAWLESSNESS,  PENURY,  ETC.  91 

closed  and  barricaded,  and  some  luckless  clan  can  gain  no  oppor- 
tunity of  washing  out  their  wrong  in  somebody's  else  blood.  The 
chief  of  that  clan  then  summons  a  council,  and  puts  forward  his 
claim  against  the  man  who  has  run  away  with  the  wife.  The 
husband  has  no  longer  anything  to  do  with  the  matter.  The  chief 
of  the  culprit's  clan  offers  pecuniary  compensation,  and  general 
concord  is  restored.  —  Readers  Savage  Africa,  page  217. 


"  Everything  that  comes  in  their  way,  which  they  cannot  appro- 
priate on  the  spot  to  their  own  use,  is  destroyed,  that  it  may  not 
be  of  advantage  to  others.  If  they  discover  an  ostrich's  nest,  and 
circumstances  do  not  permit  their  continuing  on  the  spot  till  all 
they  find  there  is  consumed,  they  eat  as  much  as  they  can,  but 
the  rest  of  the  eggs  are  destroyed.  Do  they  meet  a  large  flock  of 
springboks,  they  wound  as  many  as  possible,  although  six  or 
eight  are  sufficient  to  last  them  several  days ;  the  rest  are  left  to 
die,  and  rot  on  the  ground."  —  Lichtensteiri's  Africa,  Vol.  IL,  page 
50. 

"On  attacking  a  place,  it  is  the  custom  of  the  country  instantly 
to  fire  it ;  and  as  they  are  all  composed  of  straw  huts  only,  the 
whole  is  shortly  devoured  by  the  flames.  The  unfortunate  inhab- 
itants fly  quickly  from  the  destructive  element,  and  fall  imme- 
diately into  the  hands  of  their  no  less  merciless  enemies,  who 
surround  the  place ;  the  men  are  quickly  massacred,  and  the 
women  and  children  lashed  together,  and  made  slaves." — Den- 
ham  and  Clapperton's  Africa,  Vol.  II.,  page  120. 


"In  the  whole  district  of  Taganama,  where  so  many  different 
nationalities  border  close  together,  the  greatest  insecurity  reigns, 
and  the  inhabitants  of  one  town  cannot  safely  trust  themselves  to 
those  of  a  neighboring  place  without  fear  of  being  sold  as  slaves, 
or  at  least  of  being  despoiled  of  the  little  they  have."  —  BartVs 
Africa,  Vol.  I.,  page  548. 


"  With  the  acquisition  of  their  liberty  the  people  of  Pundi  soon 
lost  the  little  sense  of  right  and  wrong  which  they  once  had ;  and, 


92  WRANGLING,  LAWLESSNESS,   PENURY,  ETC. 

having  no  leader  for  whom  they  cared,  and  no  law  which  they 
obeyed,  they  threw  off  all  manner  of  restraint,  and,  from  robbing 
each  other,  they  turned  to  plundering  the  property  of  their  neigh- 
bors, and  waylaying  every  unprotected  stranger  or  traveller  that 
had  occasion  to  pass  through  their  country.  The  same  unruly, 
outrageous,  and  turbulent  spirit,  and  desperate  conduct  prevail 
among  the  natives  of  Pundi  to  the  present  time,  and  similar  acts 
of  rapacity  and  violence  are  consummated  by  them  every  day,  so 
that  their  country  is  dreaded  and  shunned  by  every  one  acquainted 
with  their  character  and  habits." — Lander's  Travels  in  Africa,  Vol. 
I.,  page  335. 


"Like  the  natives  of  Yarriba,  the  inhabitants  of  Layaba  appear 
to  bestow  scarcely  a  moment's  reflection  either  on  public  misery 
or  individual  distress,  —  upon  their  own  misfortunes  or  the  calam- 
ities of  their  neighbors.  Nature  has  moulded  their  minds  to  enjoy 
the  life  they  lead ;  their  grief,  if  they  grieve  at  all,  is  but  for  a 
moment ;  sorrow  cornes  over  them  and  vanishes  like  the  light- 
ning's flash ;  they  weep,  and,  in  the  same  breath,  their  spirits  re- 
gain their  elasticity  and  cheerfulness ;  they  may  well  be  said  to 
drink  of  the  waters  of  Lethe  whenever  they  please.  As  long  as 
they  have  food  to  eat,  and  health  to  enjoy  their  frivolous  pastimes, 
they  seem  contented,  happy,  and  full  of  life.  They  think  of  little 
else. 

"  '  Thought  would  destroy  their  paradise.' " 
—  Lander's  Travels  in  Africa,  Vol.  II. ,  page  40. 


"  There  are  instances  of  parents  throwing  their  tender  offspring 
to  the  hungry  lion,  who  stands  roaring  before  their  cavern,  refus- 
ing to  depart  till  some  peace-offering  be  made  to  him.  In  general 
their  children  cease  to  be  the  objects  of  a  mother's  care  as  soon  as 
they  are  able  to  crawl  about  in  the  field."  —  Kicherer.  quoted  in 
Moffat's  Africa,  page  49. 


"  On  our  return  we  saw  a  child,  about  eight  years  old,  standing 


WRANGLING,  LAWLESSNESS,   PENURY,  ETC.  93 

in  the  middle  of  the  street  weeping,  and,  being  almost  a  skeleton, 
it  attracted  our  attention.  We  inquired  respecting  its  disease ; 
when  the  women  told  us,  the  child  was  well  enough,  and  that 
want  of  food  had  brought  it  into  that  state,  —  that  the  father  and 
mother  were  poor,  —  that  he  had  gone  away  with  another  woman, 
and  was  hunting  in  the  south ;  that  the  mother  was  gone  to  the 
westward,  searching  for  food.  Neither  the  men,  women,  nor 
children  present  seemed  by  their  countenances  to  express  the 
least  sympathy  or  feeling  for  this  forsaken,  starving  child.  They 
said,  laughing,  that  we  might  take  the  child  with  us  if  we  pleased. 
I  am  certain  that  the  sight  of  this  little  girl  in  the  streets  of  Lon- 
don would  have  excited  pity  in  the  hearts  of  thousands.  We  took 
the  child  to  our  wagons,  desiring  the  people  to  inform  its  mother, 
when  she  returned,  where  she  might  find  her.  When  some  meat 
was  given  to  the  child,  she  devoured  it  with  the  voracity  of  a  tiger." 
—  Campbell's  Africa,  page  266. 


"  I  thanked  God  that  I  was  not  a  native  African.  These  poor 
people  lead  dreadful  and  dreary  lives.  Not  only  have  they  to  fear 
their  enemies  among  neighboring  tribes,  as  well  as  the  various 
accidents  to  which  a  savage  life  is  especially  liable,  such  as  starva- 
tion, the  attacks  of  wild  beasts,  etc.,  but  their  whole  lives  are  sad- 
dened and  embittered  by  the  fears  of  evil  spirits,  witchcraft,  and 
other  kindred  superstitions  under  which  they  labor." — Du  Chail- 
Itfs  Equatorial  Africa,  page  102. 


"  The  chiefs  daughter  was  the  best-looking  girl  that  I  have 
seen  among  the  blacks;  she  was  about  sixteen.  Her  clothing 
consisted  of  a  piece  of  dressed  hide,  about  a  foot  wide,  slung 
across  her  shoulders,  all  other  parts  being  exposed.  All  the  girls 
of  this  country  wear  merely  a  circlet  of  little  iron  jingling  orna- 
ments around  their  waists.  They  came  in  numbers,  bringing  small 
bundles  of  wood  to  exchange  for  a  few  handfuls  of  corn.  Most 
of  the  men  are  tall,  but  wretchedly  thin ;  the  children  are  mere 
skeletons,  and  the  entire  tribe  appears  thoroughly  starved."— 
Baiter's  Great  Basin  of  the  Nile,  page  48. 


94          THEFT  AS  A   FINE  ART  AMONG   THE  AFRICANS. 

"  The  people  of  the  Kytch  tribe  are  mere  apes,  trusting  entirely 
to  the  productions  of  nature  for  their  subsistence ;  they  will  spend 
hours  in  digging  out  field-mice  from  their  burrows,  as  we  should 
for  rabbits.  They  are  the  most  pitiable  set  of  savages  that  can  be 
imagined ;  so  emaciated,  that  they  have  no  visible  posteriors ; 
they  look  as  though  they  had  been  planed  off,  and  their  long,  thin 
legs  and  arms  give  them  a  peculiar  gnat-like  appearance.  At 
night  they  crouch  close  to  the  fires,  lying  in  the  smoke  to  escape 
the  clouds  of  mosquitoes.  At  this  season  the  country  is  a  vast 
swamp,  the  only  dry  spots  being  the  white  ant-hills;  in  such 
places  the  natives  herd  like  wild  animals,  simply  rubbing  them- 
selves with  wood  ashes  to  keep  out  the  cold.  ...  So  misera- 
ble are  the  natives  of  this  tribe,  that  they  devour  both  skins  and 
bones  of  all  dead  animals ;  the  bones  are  pounded  between  stones, 
and  when  reduced  to  powder  they  are  boiled  to  a  kind  of  porridge ; 
nothing  is  left  even  for  a  fly  to  feed  upon,  when  an  animal  either 
dies  a  natural  death,  or  is  killed." — Baker's  Great  Basin  of  the 
Nik,  page  49. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 


THEFT  AS  A  FINE    ART  AMONQ   THE  AFRICANS. 

"  SHOW  me  a  black  man,  and  I  will  show  you  a  thief." — Hutch- 
inson's  Western  Africa,  Vol.  II. ,  page  280. 


"We  found  the  people  thieves  to  a  man."  —  Mungo  Park's  2d 
Journal,  page  201. 


"  The  most  prominent  defect  in  their  character  was  that  insur- 
mountable propensity,  which  the  reader  must  have  observed  to 


THEFT  AS  A  FINE  ART  AMONG   THE  AFRICANS.          95 

prevail  in  all  classes  of  them,  —  to  steal  from  me  the  property  of 
which  I  was  possessed."  —  Mungo  Park's  1st  Journal,  page  193. 


"  The  Africans  are  all  of  them  thieves.  They  have  no  sense  of 
honor  in  that  respect.  I  have  never  yet  had  a  negro  servant  (and. 
I  have  had  a  great  many)  who  did  not  rob  me  of  some  trifling 
article,  whether  he  was  pagan  or  Christian.  .  .  .  The  Africans 
tell  a  lie  more  readily  than  they  tell  the  truth.  Falsehood,  like 
petty  larceny,  is  not  recognized  among  them  as  a  fault."  —  Headers 
Savage  Africa,  page  447. 


"  The  ladies  of  the  principal  persons  of  the  country  visited  me, 
accompanied  by  one  or  more  female  slaves.  They  examined 
everything,  even  to  the  pockets  of  my  trousers ;  and  more  inquis- 
itive ladies  I  never  saw  in  any  country ;  they  begged  for  every- 
thing, and  nearly  all  attempted  to  steal  something ;  when  found 
out,  they  only  laughed  heart ily,  clapped  their  hands  together,  and 
exclaimed,  '  Why,  how  sharp  he  is !  Only  think !  Why,  he  caught 
us ! "  —  Derihain's  Africa,  Vol.  III.,  page  24. 


'•  The  thievish  propensities  of  the  people  of  Logon  are  very  re- 
markable, and  the  first  intimation  which  I  received  of  it  was  an 
official  caution  given  to  me  to  beware  of  the  slaves  of  my  house." 
—  BarfKs  Africa,  Vol.  II. ,  page  444. 


"  From  the  king  to  the  slave,  theft  is  a  prevailing  vice  with  the 
Bechuanas ;  and,  from  what  I  have  seen  of  them,  I  am  confident 
that  the  wealthiest  and  the  most  exalted  amongst  them  would  not 
hesitate  to  steal  the  shirt  off  one's  back,  could  he  effect  it  without 
being  compromised.  Their  pilfering  habits  know  no  bounds ;  and 
they  carry  on  the  game  with  much  dexterity.  When  grouped 
about  our  camp  fires,  I  have  known  them  to  abstract  the  tools  with 
which  we  have  been  working ;  nay,  indeed,  the  very  knives  and 
forks  from  our  plates.  Once,  they  actually  took  the  meat  out  of 
the  pot,  as  it  was  boiling  on  the  fire,  substituting  a  stone.  They 
will  place  their  feet  over  any  small  article  lying  on  the  ground, 


96  THEFT  AS  A   FINE  ART  AMONG    THE  AFRICANS. 

burying  it  in  the  sand  with  their  toes ;  and,  if  unable  to  cany  it 
away  at  the  time,  they  return  to  fetch  it  at  a  more  convenient 
period."  —  Anderssori's  Africa,  page  372. 


"  Polygamy  is  here  unlimited,  and  depravity  of  every  descrip- 
tion to  an  extraordinary  extent.  The  longer  I  reside  here,  the 
more  am  I  convinced,  however,  that  the  most  predominant  pas- 
sion of  the  African  is  theft.  The  more  they  are  taught,  the  more 
accomplished  rogues  they  become."  —  Duncan's  Africa,  Vol.  I., 
page  141. 


"  Another  innate  quality  they  have  is  to  steal  anything  they  can 
lay  their  hands  upon,  especially  from  foreigners,  and  among  them- 
selves ;  then  make  boast  thereof,  as  an  ingenious  piece  of  subtlety ; 
and  so  generally  runs  this  vicious  humor  through  the  whole  race 
of  blacks,  that  great  and  rich  merchants  do  sometimes  practise 
small  filching ;  for  being  come  to  the  trading  ships  they  are  not 
at  rest  till  they  have  taken  away  something,  though  it  be  but 
nails,  or  lead ;  which  no  sooner  done,  than  with  a  singular  slight 
of  hand  ihey  convey  it  from  one  to  another;  but  if  they  chance 
to  be  trapped,  they  all  leap  instantly  overboard  for  fear  of  a  beat- 
ing; but  if  caught,  and  soundly  bastinadoed,  then,  as  past  doubt 
of  other  punishment,  they  never  avoid  the  ship,  but  come  again 
the  next  day  as  usual  to  trade."  —  Ogilby's  Africa,  page  452. 


"The  men  naturally  incline  to  cheating  and  thieving,  but  not 
so  much  among  themselves  as  toward  strangers,  to  whom  they 
are  also  bloody,  barbarous,  and  unnatural."  —  Ogilby's  Africa, 
page  486. 


"  The  people  of  the  Grain  Coast  are  very  envious  of  all  strangers, 
and  steal  from  them  whatever  they  can  lay  their  hands  on ;  so 
that  it  behooves  all  dealers  to  have  a  circumspect  eye  over  their 
goods  ^  and,  in  some  places,  they  must  be  careful  of  themselves, 
for,  being  cannibals,  they  eat  whomsoever  they  can  get  into  their 
power."  —  Ogilby's  Africa,  page  415. 


LYING  AS  AN  ACCOMPLISHMENT  IN  AFRICA.  97 

'  I  witnessed  to-day  a  striking  instance  of  the  inborn  cunning 
and  deceit  of  the  native  African.  My  people  had  spread  out  on 
mats,  in  front  of  ray  hut,  a  quantity  of  ground-nuts  which  we  had 
bought,  when  I  observed  from  the  inside  of  the  hut  a  little  urchin, 
about  four  years  old,  slyly  regaling  himself  with  them,  keeping 
his  eyes  on  me,  and  believing  himself  unnoticed.  I  suddenly 
came  out ;  but  the  little  rascal,  as  quick  as  thought,  seated  him- 
self on  a  piece  of  wood,  and  dexterously  concealed  the  nuts  ho 
had  in  his  hand  under  the  joints  of  his  legs  and  in  the  folds  of  his 
abdominal  skin ;  then  looked  up  to  me  with  an  air  of  perfect  in- 
nocence. This,  thought  I,  is  a  bright  example  of  the  unsophisti- 
cated children  of  nature,  whom  some  writers  love  to  describe,  to 
the  disadvantage  of  the  corrupted  children  of  civilization !  Thiev- 
ing, in  these  savage  countries,  is  not  considered  an  offence  against 
the  community;  for  no  one  complains  but  he  who  has  been 
robbed.  My  precocious  little  pilferer  would,  therefore,  have  no 
teaching  to  prevent  him  from  becoming  an  accomplished  thief  as 
he  grew  older,"  —  Du  Chattlti's  Ashango-Land,  page  190. 


CHAPTER    XV. 

LYING  AS  AN  ACCOMPLISHMENT  AMONG  THE  AFRICANS. 

*'  THE  truth  is  not  in  them,  and  to  be  detected  in  a  lie  is  not  the 
smallest  disgrace ;  it  only  causes  a  laugh."  —  Clappertori's  Africa, 
page  184. 


"  Almost  every  African  is  guilty  of  gross  exaggeration  in  his 
statements,  and  too  many  of  them  are  confirmed  liars."  —  Lander's 
Travels  in  Africa,  Vol.  I.,  page  375. 


Lying  is  thought  an  enviable  accomplishment  among  all  the 


98  DUPLICITY  AND   VENALITY  OF  THE  NEGROES. 

tribes,  and  a  more  thorough  and  unhesitating  liar  than  one  of 
these  negroes  is  not  to  be  found  anywhere."  —  Du  ChailMs  Equa- 
torial Africa,  page  437. 


"  Lying  being  more  familiar  to  their  constitution  than  truth- 
saying,  they  are  forever  concocting  dodges  with  the  view,  which 
they  glory  in,  of  successfully  cheating  people."  —  Speke's  Africa, 
page  28. 


"They  little  esteem  any  promises  made  to  foreigners,  but 
break  them  if  they  can  see  any  advantage  in  it ;  in  brief,  they  are 
a  ti'eacherous,  perjured,  subtle,  and  false  people,  only  showing 
friendship  to  those  they  have  most  need,  of." — Ogilby^s  Africa, 
page  452. 


CHAPTER    XVI. 

DUPLICITY    AND    VENALITY    OP    THE     NEGROES    IN     NEGROLAND. 

"!T  seems  it  was  a  custom  in  this  country  (and  not  yet  entirely 
repealed)  that  whatever  commodity  a  man  sells  in  the  morning, 
he  may,  if  he  repents  his  bargain,  go  and  have  the  things  returned 
to  him  again,  on  his  paying  back  the  money  any  time  before  the 
setting  of  the  sun  the  same  day ;  and  this  custom  is  still  in  force 
very  high  up  the  river,  but  here  below  it  is  at  present  pretty  well 
worn  out.  However,  I  shall  here  give  an  account  how  a  gentle- 
man, who  had  the  honor  of  being  at  the  head  of  the  company's 
affairs  here,  was  served  at  this  very  town  of  Nackway.  Not 
above  twelve  years  ago,  he  went  up  in  a  sloop  on  a  trading  voy- 
age to  Nackway,  where  he  got  a  hut  built,  and  took  his  goods 
ashore  to  trade  with.  It  happened  that  one  morning  a  man  j 
brought  a  cow  to  sell  to  him,  which  he  bought  for  an  iron  barr. 
Soon  after  he  bought  it,  he  cut  the  cow's  tail  off,  which  being 


DUPLICITY  AND    VENALITY  OF  THE  NEGROES.  99 

earned  to  the  ears  of  the  fellow  that  sold  the  cow,  he  resolved  to 
make  a  handle  of  it,  in  order  to  extort  money  from  the  governor. 
Accordingly,  about  noon  the  same  day,  he  came  to  the  port  of 
Nackway,  in  a  seeming  good-humor,  and  a  great  number  of 
people  with  him,  with  a  plausible  story,  that,  as  he  was  going  the 
next  day  to  marry  one  of  his  daughters  to  a  young  man  for  whom 
he  had  a  great  regard,  and  had  nothing  to  make  him  a  present 
of,  he  therefore  had  thought  better  of  it,  and  was  not  willing  to 
sell  his  cow,  as  he  intended,  and  so  desired  he  might  have  it  re- 
turned to  him.  The  governor,  not  dreaming  of  the  plot,  imme- 
diately ordered  one  of  his  servants  to  bring  the  cow,  and  return 
it  to  the  pei'son  who  brought  it.  Accordingly,  the  cow  was  pro- 
duced, at  which  the  fellow  seemed  surprised,  and  told  the  gover- 
nor that  that  was  not  his  cow.  The  governor  told  him  it  was. 
'  How  can  that  be  ? '  says  he ;  '  my  cow  had  a  tail  on  when  I 
brought  her  to  you  this  morning.1  '  It  is  very  true,'  quoth  the  gov- 
ernor ;  '  when  I  bought  her,  she  had  a  tail ;  but,  when  I  had  paid 
for  her,  I  cut  the  tail  off.'  '  How,'  says  the  fellow,  '  durst  you 
have  the  assurance  to  cut  off  my  cow's  tail  without  my  leave  ?  I 
value  the  cow  and  her  tail  at  three  hundred  barrs,  and  that  sum 
you  shall  pay  me  before  you  stir  from  this  place.'  The  governor 
was  very  much  out  of  humor,  and  endeavored  to  prove  that  after 
lie  had  paid  for  the  cow  she  belonged  to  him ;  but  it  was  all  to  no 
purpose,  for  every  one  present  gave  it  against  him  (expecting  to 
come  in  for  a  snack  of  the  money),  and  so  he  was  obliged  to  go  to 
his  store  and  pay  the  fellow  three  hundred  barrs  for  only  docking 
the  cow's  tail."  —  Moore's  Inland  Parts  of  Africa,  page  122. 


"  In  morality,  according  to  the  more  extended  sense  of  the 
word,  the  East  African  is  markedly  deficient.  He  has  no  benev- 
olence, but  little  veneration  (the  negro  race  is  ever  irreverent), 
and,  though  his  cranium  rises  high  in  the  region  of  firmness,  his 
futility  prevents  his  being  firm.  The  outlines  of  law  are  faintly 
traced  upon  his  heart.  The  authoritative  standard  of  morality, 
fixed  by  a  revelation,  is  in  him  represented  by  a  vague  and  vary- 
ing custom,  derived  traditionally  from  his  ancestors ;  he  follows 
in  their  track  for  old  sake's  sake.  The  accusing  conscience  is 
unknown  to  him.  His  only  fear,  after  committing  a  treacherous 
murder,  is  that  of  being  haunted  by  the  angry  ghost  of  the  dead ; 


100          VORACITY  AND   GLUTTONY  OF  THE  NEGROES. 

he  robs  as  one  doing  a  good  deed,  and  he  begs  as  if  it  were  his 
calling.  His  depravity  is  of  the  grossest ;  intrigue  fills  up  all 
the  moments  not  devoted  to  intoxication."  —  Burton's  Africa, 
page  496. 


"  The  queen  has  slandered  and  defamed  the  character  of  her 
brother  to  us  most  shamefully.  In  more  civilized  or  rather  more 
polished  countries,  among  the  reasonable  part  of  mankind,  a 
mutual  interchange  of  benevolent  intentions  produces  a  reciproc- 
ity of  kind  feeling ;  and  we  would  hope  that  the  present  of  yams 
from  her  brother  would  excite  the  queen's  more  generous  and 
affectionate  sentiments  for  him.  Yet  this  despicable  vice  of 
slander  is  universal  in  Africa ;  the  people  all  speak  ill  of  each 
other,  from  the  monarch  to  the  slave." — Lander's  Travels  in  Africa, 
Vol.  /.,  page  343. 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

REVOLTING    VORACITY    AND     GLUTTONY     OF    THE     NEGROES    DC 
NEGROLAND. 

"  HUNGER  compels  them  to  feed  on  everything  edible.  Ixias, 
wild  garlic,  mysembryanthemums,  the  core  of  aloes,  gum  of 
acacias,  and  several  other  plants  and  berries,  some  of  which  are 
extremely  unwholesome,  constitute  their  fruits  of  the  field ;  while 
almost  every  kind  of  living  creature  is  eagerly  devoured, 
lizards,  locusts,  and  grasshoppers  not  excepted.  The  poisonous, 
as  well  as  innoxious  serpents  they  roast  and  eat.  They  cut  off 
the  head  of  the  former,  which  they  dissect,  and  carefully  extract 
the  bags,  or  reservoirs  of  poison,  which  communicate  with  the 
fangs  of  the  upper  jaw.  They  mingle  it  with  the  milky  juice  of 
the  euphorbia,  or  with  that  of  a  poisonous  bulb.  After  simmering 
for  some  time  on  a  slow  fire,  it  acquires  the  consistency  of  wax, 


VORACITY  AND   OLUTTONT  OF  THE  NEGROES.          101 

with  which  they  cover  the  points  of  their  arrows."  —  Moffafs 
Africa,  page  47. 


"  Every  animal  is  entrapped  and  eaten.  Gins  or  snares  are 
seen  on  both  sides  of  the  path,  every  ten  or  fifteen  yards,  for  miles 
together.  The  time  and  labor  required  to  dig  up  moles  and  mice 
from  their  burrows  would,  if  applied  to  cultivation,  afford  food 
for  any  amount  of  fowls  or  swine ;  but  the  latter  are  seldom  met 
with."  —  Livingstone's  Africa,  page  490. 


"  When  a  horde  has  taken  anything  in  the  chase,  or  by  plunder, 
it  is  concealed  as  much  as  possible  from  all  the  others ;  since  who- 
ever learns  that  there  is  something  to  be  eaten,  comes  without 
any  ceremony,  or  waiting  for  an  invitation  to  partake  of  it.  As 
everything  is  common  property,  the  booty  cannot  be  withheld,  or 
a  part  of  it  at  least,  from  any  one  who  requires  it.  Thence  the 
incredible  voracity  with  which  they  immediately  devour  whatever 
they  catch  in  the  chase."  —  Licktensteiri's  Africa,  Vol.  II.,  page  50. 


"  The  Bagos  are  great  eaters,  and  their  diet  principally  consists 
of  dry  fish,  swimming  in  palm  oil,  which  renders  it  so  disgusting 
that  a  European  could  not  touch  it.  When  they  kill  a  sheep,  they 
mix  the  skin  and  entrails,  unwashed,  with  the  stews  which  they 
make ;  they  also  eat  snakes,  lizards,  and  monkeys."  —  CailliJs 
Africa,  Vol.  I., page  166. 


"  The  Kaffirs  eat  like  ogres,  but  at  a  pinch  they  can  easily  go 
three  days  without  food.  I  once  saw  a  clever  mischievous  Kaffir 
lad,  named  April,  hide  inside  an  elephant  we  had  shot  that  day. 
He  caught  two  vultures  by  the  legs  as  they  were  tearing  away  at 
the  carcass,  pulled  the  first  inside,  and  shoved  him  forward  into 
the  vacant  space  where  the  Masaras  had  taken  out  the  elephant's 
heart,  and  then  proceeded  to  capture  his  mate.1' — Baldwins 
Africa,  page  306. 

9* 


102     DISLIKE   OF  THEIR   OWN  COLOR  BY  THE  NEGROES. 

"  Hosts  of  savages  by  whom  we  were  attended  quickly  cleared 
away  the  carcasses  of  the  game  we  slew,  and  then  quarrelled  for 
the  entrails.  I  hope  the  reader  has  understood  that  these  barba- 
rians generally  devour  the  meat  raw,  although  when  at  leisure  they 
do  not  object  to  its  being  cooked.  They  usually  seize  a  piece  of 
flesh  by  the  teeth,  cutting  a  large  mouthful  of  it  with  a  knife  close 
to  the  lips,  before  masticating  it,  which  they  do  with  a  loud  sput- 
ter and  noise.  The  meal  being  finished  they  never  fail  to  wipe 
their  hands  on  their  bodies,  and  then  being  generally  gorged  they 
lay  themselves  down  to  repose." — Harris's  Expedition  into  Southern 
Africa,  page  160. 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

DISLIKE  OF  THEIR  OWN  COLOR  BY  THE  NEGROES  IN  NEGROLAND. 

"  THE  whole  of  the  colored  tribes  consider  that  beauty  and  fair- 
ness are  associated,  and  women  long  for  children  of  light  color  so 
much,  that  they  sometimes  chew  the  bark  of  a  certain  tree,  in 
hopes  of  producing  that  effect.  To  my  eye  the  dark  color  is  much 
more  agreeable  than  the  tawny  hue  of  the  half-caste,  which  that 
of  the  Makoloto  ladies  closely  resembles.  The  women  generally 
escape  the  fever,  but  they  are  less  fruitful  than  formerly  ;  and  to 
their  complaint  of  being  undervalued  on  account  of  the  dispropor- 
tion of  the  sexes,  they  now  add  their  regrets  at  the  want  of  chil- 
dren, of  whom  they  are  all  excessively  fond."  —  Livingstone's 
Africa,  page  204. 


"  Katema,  the  ruler  of  the  village,  asked  if  I  could  not  make 
a  dress  for  him  like  the  one  I  wore,  so  that  he  might  appear  as  a 
white  man  when  any  stranger  visited  him."  —  Livingstone's  Africa, 
page  517. 


DISLIKE  OF  THEIR  OWN  COLOR  BY  THE  NEGROES..     103 

"  The  people  under  Bango  are  divided  into  a  number  of  classes. 
There  are  his  councillors,  as  the  highest,  who  are  generally  head 
men  of  several  villages,  and  the  carriers,  the  lowest  freemen. 
One  class  above  the  last  obtains  the  privilege  of  wearing  shoes 
from  the  chief  by  paying  for  it ;  another,  the  soldiers  or  militia, 
pay  for  the  privilege  of  serving,  the  advantage  being  that  they 
are  not  afterward  liable  to  be  made  carriers.  They  are  also 
divided  into  gentlemen  and  little  gentlemen,  and,  though  quite 
black,  speak  of  themselves  as  white  men,  and  of  others  who  may 
not  wear  shoes,  as  '  blacks.'  The  men  of  all  these  classes  trust 
to  their  wives  for  food,  and  spend  most  of  their  time  in  drinking 
the  palm-toddy."  —  Livingstone's  Africa,  page  445. 


"  The  negro  feels  that,  in  energy  of  character,  in  scope  of  un- 
derstanding, in  the  exercise  of  mechanical  skill,  and  in  the  prac- 
tice of  all  the  useful  acts  of  life,  he  is  hopelessly  distanced  by  the 
white  man.1' —  Wilson's  Africa,  page  343. 


"The  whole  court,  which  was  large,  was  filled,  crowded, 
crammed  with  people,  except  a  space  in  front,  where  we  sat,  into 
which  his  highness  led  Mr.  Houston  and  myself,  one  in  each  hand ; 
and  there  we  performed  an  African  dance,  to  the  great  delight  of 
the  surrounding  multitude.  The  tout  ensemble  would  doubtless 
have  formed  an  excellent  subject  for  a  caricaturist,  and  we  re- 
gretted the  absence  of  Captain  Pearce,  to  sketch  off  the  old  black 
caboceer,  sailing  majestically  around  in  his  damask  robe,  with  a 
train-bearer  behind  him,  and  every  now  and  then  turning  up  his 
old,  withered  face,  first  to  myself,  then  to  Mr.  Houston ;  then 
whisking  round  on  one  foot ;  then  marching  slowly,  with  solemn 
gait ;  twining  our  hands  in  his,  —  proud  that  a  white  man  should 
dance  with  him." — Clapperton's  Africa,  Vol.  IV.,  page  199. 


"  Zuma,  a  rich  widow  of  Wava,  the  owner  of  a  thousand  slaves, 
told  me  that  her  husband  had  been  dead  these  ten  years ;  that  she 
had  only  one  son,  and  he  was  darker  than  herself;  that  she 
loved  white  men,  and  would  go  to  Boussa  with  me."  —  Clappertori's 
Africa,  Vol.  IV.,  page  222. 


104     DISLIKE   OF  THEIR   OWN  COLOR  BY  THE  NEGROES. 

"  The  Foulahs  evidently  consider  all  the  negro  natives  as  then* 
inferiors;  and,  when  talking  of  different  nations,  always  rank 
themselves  among  the  white  people."  —  Mungo  Park's  Travels  in 
Africa,  page  23. 


"  Observing  the  improved  state  of  our  manufactures,  and  our 
manifest  superiority  in  the  arts  of  civilized  life,  Hai-fa,  the  intelli- 
gent negro  merchant,  would  sometimes  appear  pensive,  and  ex- 
claim, with  an  involuntary  sigh,  'Fato  fing  into,  feng,"1  —  black 
men  are  good  for  nothing."  —  Mungo  Park's  1st  Journal,  page  259. 


"  The  women  are  well  disposed  toward  strangers  of  fair  com- 
plexion, apparently  with  the  permission  of  their  husbands."  — 
Burton's  Africa,  page  216. 


"The   Kaffirs  believe  that  white  men  can  do  anything."  — 
Baldwins  Africa,  page  266. 


"  The  negro  Mohammedans  worship  God  under  the  name  of 
Allah ;  they  acknowledge  Mohammed  as  a  prophet,  but  do  not 
pay  him  divine  honors;  they  have  some  traditions  respecting 
Jesus  Christ,  whom  they  call  Nale,  the  son  of  Malek,  and  whom 
they  speak  of  as  a  great  prophet,  who  had  wrought  wondrous  mir- 
acles. They  denounce  as  impious  the  doctrine  that  God  could  have 
carnal  conversation  with  a  woman,  but  have  a  prophecy  of  their 
own  :that  some  day  they  shall  be  all  subdued  by  a  white  peo- 
ple."—  Readers  Savage  Africa,  page  354. 


"The  European  stranger,  travelling  in  their  country,  is  expected 
to  patronize  their  wives  and  daughters ;  and  they  feel  hurt,  as  if 
dishonored,  by  his  refusing  to  gratify  them.  The  custom  is  very 
prevalent  along  this  coast.  At  Gaboon,  perhaps  it  reaches  the 
acme ;  there  a  man  will  in  one  breath  offer  the  choice  between  his 
wife,  sister,  and  daughter.  The  women  of  course  do  as  they  are 
bid  by  the  men,  and  they  consider  all  familiarity  with  a  white 


COURTSHIP,   MARRIAGE,   AND    CONCUBINAGE.  105 

man   a  high    honor." — Hutchinsori's    Western    Africa,  Vol.   II., 
page  24. 


"  '  I  know  the  white  men,  too,  said  the  prince,  —  they  are  good 
men ;  in  fact  I  have  reason  to  speak  well  of  them,  for  I  also  am  a 
white  man,  and  therefore  I  am  of  opinion  that  they  are  of  the  same 
blood  as  ourselves.'  It  is  in  this  manner  that  Falatahs  endeavor 
to  claim  relationship  with  Europeans,  though  these  people  are 
either  of  a  swarthy  complexion  or  black  as  soot ;  and  this  passion 
to  be  considered  fair  is  often  carried  to  a  most  ridiculous  height. 
White  men,  how  sorry  soever  their  outward  appearance  may  be, 
are  certainly  considered,  not  only  by  Falatahs,  but  by  the  native 
blacks,  as  a  superior  order  of  beings,  in  all  respects  more  excel- 
lent than  themselves.  At  Yaoorie  we  recollect  having  overheard 
a  conversation  between  two  men,  who  were  quarrelling  in  the 
very  height  of  passion.  '  What!'  exclaimed  one  of  them  to  his 
fellow,  '  thou  pitiful  son  of  a  black  ant !  dost  thou  presume  to  say 
that  a  horse  was  my  father  ?  Look  at  these  Christians !  for  as 
they  are,  I  am ;  and  such  were  my  ancestors ;  answer  me  not,  I 
say,  for  I  am  a  white  man  ! '  The  speaker  was  a  negro,  and  his 
skin  was  the  color  of  charcoal."  —  Lander's  Travels  in  Africa,  Vol. 
II.,  page  79. 


CHAPTER     XIX. 

COURTSHIP,   MARRIAGE,   AND  CONCUBINAGE  IN  NEGROLAND. 

"  THE  highest  aspiration  to  which  an  African  ever  rises  is  to  have 
a  large  number  of  wives.  His  happiness,  his  reputation,  his  influ- 
ence, his  position  in  society,  all  depend  upon  this.  The  conse- 
quence is,  that  the  so-called  wives  are  little  better  than  slaves. 
They  have  no  other  purpose  in  life  than  to  administer  to  the  wants 
and  gratify  the  passions  of  their  lords,  who  are  masters  and  own- 
ers, rather  than  husbands.  It  is  not  a  little  singular,  however, 


106  COURTSHIP,   MARRIAGE,   AND   CONCUBINAGE. 

that  the  females,  upon  the  burden  of  whom  this  degrading  institu- 
tion mainly  rests,  are  quite  as  much  interested  in  its  continuance 
as  the  men  themselves.  A  woman  would  infinitely  prefer  to  be 
one  of  a  dozen  wives  of  a  respectable  man,  than  to  be  the  sole 
representative  of  a  man  who  had  not  force  of  character  to  raise 
himself  above  the  one-woman  level.  That  such  a  state  of  feeling 
should  exist  in  the  mind  of  a  heathen  woman  is  not  surprising. 
She  has  never  seen  any  other  state  of  society ;  nor  has  she  had 
any  moral  or  intellectual  training  that  would  render  such  a  posi- 
tion revolting  to  her  better  feelings.  On  the  contrary,  such  is  the 
degradation  of  her  moral  character,  that  she  would  greatly  prefer 
the  wider  margin  of  licentious  indulgence  that  she  would  enjoy  as 
one  of  a  dozen  wives,  than  the  closer  inspection  to  which  she 
would  be  subjected  as  the  only  wife  of  her  household."  —  Wilson's 
Africa,  page  112. 


"The  wife  is  always  purchased;  and  as  this  is  done,  in  the 
great  majority  of  cases,  when  she  is  but  a  child,  her  wishes,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  are  never  consulted  in  this  most  important  affair 
of  her  whole  life.  The  first  overture  must  be  made  to  the  mother. 
Her  consent  is  to  be  won  by  small  presents,  such  as  beads,  plates 
of  dried  fish,  or  a  few  leaves  of  tobacco.  When  this  is  accom- 
plished the  way  is  prepared  for  opening  negotiations  with  the 
father  and  his  family,  who  are  the  real  owners  of  the  child.  The 
main  question  to  be  settled,  and  indeed  the  only  one  about  which 
there  is  much  negotiation,  is  whether  the  applicant  is  able  to  pay 
the  dowry,  and  will  be  likely  to  do  so  without  giving  much  trouble. 
The  character  of  the  man,  his  position  in  society,  his  family  connec- 
tions, or  circumstances  in  life,  are  seldom  taken  into  the  account. 
The  price  of  a  wife  is  xisually  three  cows,  a  goat  or  a  sheep,  and  a 
few  articles  of  crockery  ware  or  brass  rods,  the  whole  of  which 
would  scarcely  exceed  twenty  dollars.  The  goat  and  the  smaller 
articles  go  to  the  mother's  family,  and  the  cows  belong  to 
the  family  of  the  father,  which  pass  out  of  their  hands  without 
much  delay  in  payment  for  a  wife  for  some  other  member  of  the 
family.  Bullocks  may  be  seen  passing  from  village  to  village, 
almost  every  day,  in  fulfilment  of  these  matrimonial  arrange- 
ments."—  Wilson's  Africa,  page  113. 


COURTSHIP,   MARRIAGE,  AND    CONCUBINAGE.  107 

"When  a  man  has  a  large  number  of  wives  he  can  of  course 
bestow  but  a  moderate  portion  of  his  time  upon  any  one  of  them. 
If  it  is  necessary  for  him  to  watch  his  wives,  they  in  turn  are  not 
less  jealous  of  any  superabundant  attentions  that  he  might  confer 
upon  any  one  of  their  own  number.  The  chief  business  of  his 
domestic  life  is  to  adjust  these  petty  jealousies,  and,  to  a  still 
greater  extent,  the  quarrels  and  strifes  which  are  hourly  springing 
up  among  the  children  of  the  different  branches  of  the  same  house- 
hold." —  Wilson's  Africa,  page  144. 


"  The  present  King  of  Dahomey  has  appropriated  no  less  than 
three  thousand  women  to  his  own  use.  The  number  belonging  to 
his  head  wai'riors  depends  upon  their  bravery,  but  no  one  is  al- 
lowed to  have  a  number  large  enough  to  suggest  most  remotely 
any  idea  of  rivalry  Avith  the  king.  It  is  well  known  that  many  of 
the  wives  of  the  king  must  be  sacrificed  at  the  death  of  their  lord, 
and  this,  no  doubt,  is  a  powerful  motive  to  induce  them  to  take 
the  best  care  of  him,  and  prolong  his  life  as  much  as  possible,  but 
never  deters  any  from  freely  entering  into  this  honored  relation- 
ship." —  Wilson's  Africa,  page  202. 


"  The  Ashantee  wife  is  not  placed  on  a  footing  of  social  equal- 
ity with  her  husband.  Her  position  is  a  menial  one,  and  she  sel- 
dom aspires  to  anything  higher  than  merely  to  gratify  the  passions 
of  her  husband.  She  never  takes  a  seat  at  the  social  board  with 
him.  Indeed  it  would  be  regarded  as  a  degradation  on  the  part 
of  the  husband.  The  different  women  of  his  household,  at  a  given 
concert  among  themselves,  bring  each  their  quota  of  food,  and  set 
it  before  their  lord,  each  one  taking  up  a  small  portion  of  their 
respective  dishes  and  eating  it  in  his  presence,  as  evidence  that 
they  have  not  used  poison  in  the  preparation  of  his  food,  then 
retire  to  their  respective  houses,  while  he  partakes  of  his  repast 
alone.  His  smaller  children,  and  generally  those  of  the  wives  who 
have  provided  his  food,  gather  around  him  with  their  little  wooden 
bowls  to  receive  at  his  hands  a  portion  of  the  superabundant  sup- 
ply that  has  been  set  before  him." —  Wilson's  Africa, page  182. 


108  COURTSHIP,  MARRIAGE,  AND   CONCUBINAGE. 

"  Polygamy  is  a  favorite  institution  with  the  Ashantees,  and, 
like  everything  of  the  kind,  it  is  carried  to  an  extravagant  length. 
A  man's  importance  in  society  is  rated  according  to  the  number  of 
his  wives  and  slaves ;  and,  naturally  enough,  the  only  limit  known 
to  the  multiplication  of  them  in  a  country  where  both  can  be  had 
for  money,  is  a  man's  ability  to  purchase.  In  Ashantee  the  law 
limits  the  king  to  three  thousand  three  hundred  and  thirty-three. 
Whether  it  requires  him  to  come  up  to  this  mai-k  is  not  known. 
No  one  is  permitted  to  see  the  wives  of  the  king  except  female 
relatives,  or  such  messengers  as  he  may  send,  and  even  these 
must  communicate  with  them  through  their  bamboo  walls.  Some 
times  they  go  forth  in  a  body  through  the  streets,  but  are  always 
preceded  by  a  company  of  boys,  who  warn  the  people  to  get  out 
of  the  way,  and  avoid  the  unpardonable  offence  of  seeing  the 
king's  wives.  The  men  especially,  no  matter  what  their  rank, 
must  get  out  of  the  way,  and,  if  they  have  not  had  sufficient  time 
to  do  this,  they  must  fall  flat  on  the  ground  and  hide  their  faces 
until  the  procession  has  passed.  To  see  one  of  the  king's  wives, 
even  accidentally,  is  a  capital  offence  ;  and  the  scene  of  confusion 
which  occasionally  takes  place  in  the  public  market,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  unexpected  approach  of  the  royal  cortege,  is  said  to 
be  ludicrous  beyond  all  description."  —  Wilson's  Africa,  page  180. 


"  Married  women  are  extremely  superstitious  in  having  their 
beds  covered  with  the  skins  of  particular  animals  when  their  hus- 
bands visit  them ;  and  never  fail  to  predict  the  fate  and  fortune  of 
a  child  in  consequence  of  these  arrangements.  A  panther  or  a 
leopai'd's  skin  is  sure  to  produce  a  boy,  or  nothing.  Should  the 
father  be  a  soldier,  and  a  chief,  the  boy  will  be  a  warrior,  bold, 
and  bloody.  A  lion's  skin  is  said  to  prevent  child-bearing  al- 
together ;  yet  exceptions  to  this  rule  sometimes  occur.  It  is  then 
always  a  boy,  and  a  wonderful  one.  He  puts  his  foot  on  the  necks 
of  all  the  world,  and  is  alike  brave,  generous,  and  fortunate."  — 
Denliam  and  Clappertoii's  Africa,  Vol.  III.,  page  182. 


"  Yano,  Chief  of  Eiama,  asked  me  if  I  would  take  his  daughter 
for  a  wife.  I  said  •  Yes.'  .  .  .  The  old  woman  went  out,  and 
I  followed  with  the  king's  head  man.  I  went  to  the  house  of  the 


COURTSHIP,  MARRIAGE,  AND   CONCUBINAGE.  109 

daughter,  which  consists  of  several  coozies  separate  from  those 
of  the  father,  and  I  was  shown  into  a  very  clean  one  ;  a  mat  was 
spread ;  I  sat  down ;  and  the  lady  coming  in  and  kneeling  down, 
I  asked  her  if  she  would  live  in  my  house,  or  I  should  come  and 
live  with  her;  she  said,  whatever  way  I  wished;  very  well,  I 
said,  I  would  come  and  live  with  her,  as  she  had  the  best  house." 
—  Clapperton's  Africa,  Vol.  IV.,  page  215. 


"  Assulah,  the  Chief  of  Chaki,  inquired  how  many  wives  an 
Englishman  had.  Being  told  only  one,  he  seemed  much  aston- 
ished, and  laughed  greatly,  as  did  all  his  people.  'What  does  he 
do,'  said  he,  'when  one  of  his  wives  has  a  child?  Assulah  has 
two  thousand.' "  —  Clappertori's  Africa,  Vol.. IV.,  page  204. 


"  Of  wives,  the  Chief  of  Katunga  said,  he  himself  had  plenty,  — 
he  did  not  exactly  know  how  many,  but  he  was  sure  that,  hand  to 
hand,  they  would  reach  from  Katunga  to  Jannah." —  Clappertori's 
Africa,  Vol.  IV.,  page  212. 


"  So  little  tenderness  or  sociability  exists  between  a  married 
couple,  particularly  if  they  should  happen  to  be  slaves,  that  they 
have  nothing  in  common ;  and,  though  they  eat  and  sleep  in  the 
same  hut,  they  seek  a  separate  livelihood.  Perhaps  it  would  be 
speaking  within  compass  to  say  that  four-fifths  of  the  whole  popu- 
lation in  this  country  are  slaves."  —  Lander's  Travels  in  Africa.  Vol. 
I.,  page  377. 


"  The  king  solicited  a  charm  of  us  to-day,  to  preserve  his  house 
from  the  effects  of  fire,  and  cause  him  to  become  rich ;  while  one 
of  his  elderly  wives  made  a  doleful  complaint  of  having  been 
likely  to  become  a  mother  for  the  last  thirty  years,  and  begged 
piteously  for  medicine  to  promote  and  assist  her  accouchement. 
We  could  satisfy  the  old  man  easily  enough,  but  his  wife's  hypo- 
chondriacal  complaint  we  conceived  too  dangerous  to  be  meddled 
with  by  unprofessional  hands.  Poor  woman,  she  is  much  to  be 
pitied,  for  the  odd  delusion  under  which  she  has  been  laboring  so 
10 


110  COURTSHIP,   MARRIAGE,   AND   CONCUBINAGE. 

long  a  time  has  given  her  considerable  uneasiness,  so  that  life  it- 
self has  become  a  burden  to  her.  All  that  we  could  do  for  her 
was  to  soothe  her  mind,  by  telling  her  that  her  distemper  was 
very  common,  and  not  at  all  dangerous ;  and  promising  that  on 
our  return  this  way,  should  nothing  transpire  in  her  favor  in  the 
mean  time,  we  would  endeavor  to  remove  the  cause  of  her  com- 
plaint. This  comforted  the  aged  matron  exceedingly,  and,  in  the 
fulness  of  her  heart,  she  burst  into  tears  of  joy,  dropped  on  her 
knees  to  express  her  acknowledgment,  and  pressed  us  to  accept 
of  a  couple  of  goora-nuts." —  Lander's  Travels  in  Africa,  Vol.  /., 
page  193. 


"The  chief  recreations  of  the  natives  of  Angola  are  marriages 
and  funerals.  When  a  young  woman  is  about  to  be  married  she 
is  placed  in  a  hut  alone,  and  anointed  with  various  unguents,  and 
many  incantations  are  employed  in  order  to  secure  good  fortune 
and  fruitfulness.  Here,  as  almost  everywhere  in  the  south,  the 
height  of  good  fortune  is  to  bear  sons.  They  often  leave  a  hus- 
band altogether  if  they  have  daughters  only.  In  their  dances, 
where  any  one  may  wish  to  deride  another,  in  the  accompanying 
song  a  line  is  introduced,  '  So  and  so  has  no  children,  and  nev- 
er will  get  any.'  She  feels  the  insult  so  keenly  that  it  is  not  un- 
common for  her  to  rush  away  and  commit  suicide."  —  Living- 
stone's Africa,  page  446. 


"  Female  virtue  is  held  in  so  little  esteem  that  opportu- 
nities of  infidelity  are  often  afforded  by  husbands  to  some  of  his 
less  favorite  wives,  for  the  purpose  of  extorting  money  and  get- 
ting rid  of  her.  The  common  price  of  a  wife  here  and  at  Cape 
Coast  is  sixteen  dollars.  A  wife  is  very  seldom  purchased  when 
more  than  twenty  years  old ;  but  generally  when  five  or  six  years 
younger,  so  that  very  old  men  have  frequently  ten  or  a  dozen 
wives  much  younger  than,  their  own  daughters." —  Duncan's  Af- 
rica, Vol.  L,  page  79. 


"In  Maopongo  it  was  a  prevailing  practice  that  before  mar- 
riage the  two  parties  should  live  together  for  some  time,  and 


COURTSHIP,  MARRIAGE,  AND   CONCUBINAGE.  Ill 

make  trial  of  each  other's  tempers  and  inclinations,  before  they 
formed  the  final  engagement.  To  this  system  of  probation  the 
people  were  most  obstinately  attached,  and  the  missionaries  in 
vain  denounced  it,  calling  upon  them  at  once  either  to  marry  or  to 
separate.  The  young  ladies  were  always  the  most  anxious  to 
have  the  full  benefit  of  this  experimental  process,  and  the  moth- 
ers, on  being  referred  to,  refused  to  incur  responsibility,  and  ex- 
pose themselves  to  the  reproaches  of  their  daughters,  by  urging 
them  to  an  abridgment  of  the  trial,  of  which  they  might  after- 
ward repent.  The  missionaries  seem  to  have  been  most  diligent 
in  the  task,  as  they  call  it,  of  '  reducing  strayed  souls  to  matri- 
mony.' Father  Benedict  succeeded  with  no  less  than  six  hundred, 
but  he  found  it  such  '  laborious  work '  that  he  fell  sick  and  died  in 
consequence."  —  Murray^s  African  Discoveries,  page  55. 


"  The  Bushmen  use  no  form  in  their  marriages.  A  young  man 
courts  the  object  of  his  affection ;  teazes  her  in  the  night  time  to 
take  him  to  be  her  husband,  and  will  sometimes  pull  her  out  of 
the  hut  while  asleep,  and  teaze  her  till  he  obtains  her  consent. 
He  need  not  ask  the  consent  of  her  parents,  or  even  tell  them, 
but  at  marriage  he  makes  a  feast  for  them,  when  he  gives  them  a 
present  of  a  bow  and  arrows,  01*  a  skin  sack." —  Campbell's  Africa, 
page  439. 


"  As  the  Bosjesman  lives  without  a  home,  and  without  property, 
he  must  be  without  the  great  medium  of  moral  refinement,  —  the 
social  union.  A  horde  commonly  consists  of  the  different  mem- 
bers of  one  family  only,  and  no  one  has  any  power  or  distinction 
above  the  rest.  Every  difference  is  decided  by  the  right  of  the 
strongest;  even  the  family  tie  is  not  sanctioned  by  any  law  or 
regulation.  The  wife  is  not  indissolubly  united  to  her  husband ; 
but,  when  he  gives  her  permission,  she  may  go  whither  she  will, 
and  associate  with  any  other  man;  nay,  the  stronger  man  will 
sometimes  take  away  the  wife  of  the  weaker,  and  compel  her, 
whether  she  will  or  not,  to  follow  him."  —  Liclitenstein's  Africa, 
Vol.  II. ,  page  48. 


112  COURTSHIP,  MARRIAGE,  AND   CONCUBINAGE. 

"I have,  on  a  former  occasion,  in  my  remarks  upon  the  lan- 
guages of  these  savages,  observed,  as  a  thing  worthy  of  notice, 
that  they  seem  to  have  no  idea  of  the  distinction  of  girl,  maiden, 
and  wife ;  they  are  all  expressed  by  one  word  alone.  I  leave 
every  reader  to  draw  from  this  single  circumstance  his  own  infer- 
ence with  regard  to  the  nature  of  love,  and  every  kind  of  moral 
feeling  among  them."  —  Licktensteiri's  Africa,  Vol.  II. ,  page  48. 


"When  the  Muata  Cazembe  falls  in  love  with  a  female,  either 
from  personal  observation  or  from  a  report  of  her  attractions,  he 
causes  her  to  be  conveyed  to  his  gauda,  where  she  is  compelled 
to  discover  all  the  objects  of  her  former  amours,  who,  by  order 
of  the  Muata,  are  immediately  put  to  death,  and  all  their  property 
confiscated.  When  all  objects  of  jealousy  are  thus  removed  by 
the  Cata-Dofo,  or  high  commissioner  of  the  seraglio,  who  is  the 
chief  agent  in  carrying  out  the  orders  of  the  Muata,  the  new  ob- 
ject of  his  passion  is  sent  to  join  the  other  ladies  of  the  seraglio. 
The  introduction  of  a  new  wife  into  the  harem  is  thus  always  the 
signal  for  a  number  of  deaths ;  and,  indeed,  to  so  great  an  excess 
is  this  carried,  that  the  occasion  is  often  laid  hold  of  as  a  pretext 
for  the  jealous  to  wreak  their  vengeance  on  the  unsuspecting  vic- 
tims of  their  hatred."—  Valdai's  Africa,  Vol.  II.,  page  253. 


"The  palavers  were  numerous  and  difficult  to  settle.  They 
related  either  to  runaway  wives  (a  fertile  source  of  ill-will  and 
blood-shed)  or  to  homicides.  When  a  man  is  killed  here,  if  only 
by  accident,  satisfaction  must  be  given.  Deaths  by  accident  are 
not  more  excusable  than  wilful  murder.  ...  As  regards  run- 
away wives,  the  laws  are  very  severe.  Any  wife  refusing  to 
remain  with  her  husband,  or  running  away,  is  condemned  to  have 
her  ears  and  nose  cut  off.  Any  man  debauching  his  neighbor's 
wife  has  to  give  a  slave  to  the  injured  husband,  and,  if  he  cannot 
pay  this  fine,  he  must  have  his  ears  and  nose  cut  off.  They  have 
no  laws  to  punish  robbery."  —  Du  Chaillu's  Ashango-Land,  page 
74. 


'•  A  man  pays  goods  or  slaves  for  his  wife,  and  regards  her, 


COURTSHIP,    MARRIAGE,   AND   CONCUBINAGE.  113 

therefore,  as  a  piece  of  merchandise.  Young  girls  —  even  chil- 
dren in  arms  —  are  married  to  old  men  for  political  effect.  The 
idea  of  love,  as  we  understand  it,  seems  unknown  to  the  Africans. 
On  the  sea-shore  a  man  will  hire  you  his  mother,  wife,  or  sister, 
for  the  vilest  uses,  and  the  women  are  never  averse  if  they  can 
only  obtain  the  wages  of  prostitution."  —  Du  Chaillu's  Equatorial 
Africa,  page  75. 


"  Obedience  is  the  wife's  first  duty,  and  it  is  enforced  without 
mercy.  A  whip  is  made  of  the  hide  of  the  hippopotamus  or  ma- 
nut  u,  and  is  a  barbarous  weapon,  as  stiff,  and  hard,  and  heavy  as 
iron.  This  is  laid  on  with  no  light  hand,  the  worthy  husband 
crying  out,  '  Rascal,  do  you  think  I  paid  my  slaves  for  }7ou  for 
nothing?  '  The  wives  are  more  harshly  treated  than  the  slaves; 
a  stroke  of  the  whip  often  leaves  a  lifelong  mark ;  and  I  saw 
very  few  women  in  my  travels  who  had  not  some  such  marks  on 
their  persons."  —  Du  Chaillu's  Equatorial  Africa,  page  382. 


"  With  usual  African  hospitality,  my  kingly  friend  offered  me  a 
wife  on  my  arrival  at  his  place.  This  is  the  common  custom  when 
the  negroes  wish  to  pay  respect  to  their  guests ;  and  they  cannot 
understand  why  white  men  should  decline  what  they  consider  a 
mere  matter  of  course." — Du  Chaillu's  Equatorial  Africa,  page 
71. 


"  I  had  now  grown  to  such  sudden  importance  among  the  na- 
tives, that  the  neighboring  chiefs  and  kings  sent  me  daily  mes- 
sages of  friendship,  with  trifling  gifts  that  I  readily  accepted. 
One  of  these  lords,  more  generous  and  insinuating  than  the  rest, 
hinted  several  times  his  anxiety  for  a  closer  connection  in  affec- 
tion as  well  as  trade,  and,  at  length,  insisted  upon  becoming  my 
father-in-law.  I  had  always  heard  that  it  was  something  to  receive 
the  hand  of  a  princess,  even  after  long  and  tedious  wooing ;  but 
now  that  I  was  surrounded  by  a  mob  of  kings,  who  absolutely 
thrust  their  daughters  on  me,  I  confess  I  had  the  bad  taste  not  to 
leap  with  joy  at  the  royal  offering.  Still  I  was  in  a  difficult  posi- 
tion, as  no  graver  offence  can  be  given  a  chief  than  to  reject  his 
10* 


114  COURTSHIP,  MARRIAGE,  AND   CONCUBINAGE. 

child.  It  is  so  serious  an  insult  to  refuse  a  wife,  that,  high-born 
natives,  in  order  to  avoid  quarrels  or  war,  accept  the  tender  boon, 
and  as  soon  as  etiquette  permits,  pass  it  over  to  a  friend  or  rela- 
tion. As  the  offer  was  made  to  me  personally  by  the  king,  I  found 
the  utmost  difficulty  in  escaping.  Indeed,  he  would  receive  no 
excuse.  When  I  declined  on  account  of  the  damsel's  youth,  he 
laughed  incredulously.  If  I  urged  the  feebleness  of  my  health 
and  tardy  convalescence,  he  insisted  that  a  regular  life  of  matri- 
mony was  the  best  cordial  for  an  impaired  constitution."  —  Canofs 
Twenty  Years  of  an  African  Slaver,  page  110. 


"  During  the  whole  time  that  the  old  lady  was  at  work  she  was 
uttering  disjointed  remarks  to  me,  and  at  length  proposed,  in  the 
most  shameless  and  barefaced  manner,  that  I  should  marry  her 
daughter.  I  requested  to  know  which  of  the  damsels  then  pres- 
ent was  the  proposed  bride,  and  was  shown  a  young  lady  about 
twelve  years  old,  who  had  very  much  the  appearance  of  a  picked 
Cochin-China  fowl.  I  concealed  my  laughter,  and  told  the  old 
lady  that  when  this  lassie  became  taller,  and  very  fat,  I  might 
then  think  more  seriously  of  her  proposition ;  but  as  at  present  I 
had  not  six  cows  (the  required  price)  handy,  I  could  not  enter- 
tain the  subject.  The  old  lady  told  me  she  would  get  the  skin  and 
bone  adorned  with  fat  by  the  time  I  came  on  another  visit,  and, 
for  all  I  know,  this  black  charmer  may  be  now  waiting  in  disap- 
pointed plumpness.11  —  Drayson's  Africa,  page  227. 


"  The  husband  is  always  expected  to  provide  a  separate  house 
for  each  of  his  wives;  but  even  this  precaution  cannot  prevent  the 
quarrels  and  strife  which  are  continually  occurring  among  the 
different  wives  and  children.  The  wives  are  never  treated  as 
equals.  They  are  not  allowed  to  sit  down  to  a  meal  with  their 
husbands ;  but  after  they  have  prepared  their  food,  they  are  re- 
quired in  their  presence  to  taste  it,  to  show  that  it  has  not  been 
poisoned.  This  process  is  called  '  taking  off  the  witch.1 "  —  Scoffs 
Day  Dawn  in  Africa,  page  50. 


1 A  man  must  marry  because  it  is  necessary  to  his  comfort,  con- 


COURTSHIP,   MARRIAGE,   AND   CONCUBINAGE.  115 

sequently  the  woman  becomes  a  marketable  commodity.  Her 
father  demands  for  her  as  many  cows,  cloths,  and  brass- wire 
bracelets  as  the  suitor  can  afford ;  he  thus  virtually  sells  her,  and 
she  belongs  to  the  buyer,  ranking  with  his  other  live-stock.  The 
husband  may  sell  his  wife,  or,  if  she  be  taken  from  him  by  another 
man,  he  claims  her  value,  which  is  ruled  by  what  she  would  fetch 
in  the  slave-market.  .  .  .  Polygamy  is  unlimited,  and  the 
chiefs  pride  themselves  upon  the  number  of  their  wives,  varying 
from  twelve  to  three  hundred.  It  is  no  disgrace  for  an  unmarried 
woman  to  become  the  mother  of  a  family."  —  Burton's  Africa, 
page  493. 


"  There  is  no  such  thing  as  love  in  those  countries,  the  feeling  is 
not  understood,  nor  does  it  exist  in  the  shape  in  which  we  under- 
stand it.  Everything  is  practical,  without  a  particle  of  romance. 
Women  are  so  far  appreciated  as  they  are  valuable  animals.  They 
grind  the  corn,  fetch  the  water,  gather  firewood,  cement  the  floors, 
cook  the  food,  and  propagate  the  race ;  but  they  are  mere  ser- 
vants, and  as  such  are  valuable.  The  price  of  a  good-looking, 
strong,  young  wife,  who  could  carry  a  heavy  jar  of  water,  would 
be  ten  cows ;  thus  a  man,  rich  in  cattle,  would  be  rich  in  domestic 
bliss,  as  he  could  command  a  multiplicity  of  wives.  The  simple 
rule  of  proportion  will  suggest  that  if  one  daughter  is  worth  ten 
cows,  ten  daughters  must  be  worth  a  hundred,  therefore  a  large 
family  is  the  source  of  wealth ;  the  girls  produce  the  cows,  and 
the  boys  milk  them.  All  being  perfectly  naked  (I  mean  the  girls 
and  the  boys) ,  there  is  no  expense,  and  the  children  act  as  herdsmen 
to  the  flocks  as  in  the  patriarchal  times."  — Baker's  Great  Basin  of 
the  Nile,  page  148. 


"  One  of  Katchiba's  wives  had  no  children,  and  she  came  to  me 
to  apply  for  medicine  to  correct  some  evil  influence  that  had 
lowered  her  in  her  husband's  estimation.  The  poor  woman  was 
in  great  distress,  and  complained  that  Katchiba  was  very  cruel  to 
her  because  she  had  been  unable  to  make  an  addition  to  his  family, 
but  that  she  was  sure  I  possessed  some  charm  that  would  raise 
her  to  the  standard  of  his  other  wives.  I  could  not  get  rid  of  her 
until  I  gave  her  the  first  pill  that  came  to  hand  from  my  medicine- 


116  COURTSHIP,  MARRIAGE,  AND   CONCUBINAGE. 

chest,  and  with  this  she  went  away  contented."  —  Baker's  Great 
Basin  of  the  Nile,  page  216. 


"  When  a  man  becomes  too  old  to  pay  sufficient  attention  to  his 
numerous  young  wives,  the  eldest  son  takes  the  place  of  his 
father  and  becomes  his  substitute."  —  Baker's  Great  Basin  of  the 
Nile,  page  50. 


"  Negro  women  can  gratify  the  desire  of  a  libertine,  but  they 
can  never  inspire  a  passion  of  the  soul,  nor  feed  that  hunger  of 
love  which  must  sometimes  gnaw  the  heart  of  a  refined  and  cul- 
tivated man.  The  negress  has  beauty, — beauty  in  spite  of  her 
black  skin,  — which  might  create  a  furore  in  our  demi-monde,  and 
for  which  fools  might  fling  their  fortunes  to  the  dogs.  And  she  is 
gentle,  and  faithful,  and  loving  in  her  own  poor  way.  But  where 
is  the  coy  glance,  the  tender  sigh,  the  timid  blush  ?  Where  is  the 
intellect,  which  is  the  light  within  the  crystal  lamp,  the  genius 
within  the  clay?  No,  no,  the  negress  is  not  a  woman;  she  is  a 
parody  of  woman ;  she  is  a  pretty  toy,  an  affectionate  brute,  — 
that  is  all."  —  Readers  Savage  Africa,  page  240. 


"  When  the  King  of  Congo  takes  a  fresh  concubine,  her  husband 
is  put  to  death.  She  is  forced  to  give  the  names  of  her  lovers 
(for  it  seems  that  all  the  married  women  have  lovers),  and  these 
are  also  executed."  —  Headers  Savage  Africa,  page  286. 


"  It  is  curious  that  the  Equatorial  savages  of  Africa  should  have 
a  remarkable  antipathy  to  widows.  Women  never  marry  twice ; 
they  are  compelled  to  go  on  the  town  on  the  death  of  their  hus- 
band, and  to  pay  all  their  earaings  to  their  brothers.  .  .  ^ 
That  a  husband  should  offer  one  of  his  wives  to  a  visitor,  as  he 
offers  him  a  seat  in  his  house  and  at  his  table,  argues  a  want  of 
refinement  only.  But  the  husband  who  uses  his  wife,  as  is  done 
all  over  Africa,  to  decoy  young  men  to  ruin,  slavery,  and  death, 
practises  a  vice  which  seldom  occurs  among  civilized  nations."  — 
Beaded  Savage  Africa,  page  218. 


MUMBO  JUMBO  IN  NEGROLAND.  117 


"  In  many  parts  of  Africa,  no  marriage  can  be  ratified  till  a  jury 
of  matrons  have  pronounced  a  verdict  of  purity  on  the  bride  and 
of  capability  on  the  husband.  In  other  parts,  especially  in  the 
malarious  localities,  where  women  are  so  frequently  sterile,  no 
one  cares  te  marry  a  girl  till  she  has  produced  a  child.  This  has 
given  rise  to  a  supposition  that  they  prefer  a  wife  who  has  earned 
a  little  experience  in  dissipation.  The  real  reason  is,  that  if  they 
marry  they  must  pay  a  high  price  for  their  wife.  This  price  they 
hope  to  regain  by  the  sale  of  the  children  which  she  will  bear."  — 
Readers  Savage  Africa,  page  425. 


CHAPTER    XX. 

MUMBO    JUMBO    IN    NEGEOLAND. 

"  ON  the  6th  of  May,  at  night,  I  was  visited  by  a  Mumbo 
Jumbo,  an  idol,  which  is  among  the  Mandingoes  a  kind  of  a  cun- 
ning mystery.  It  is  dressed  in  a  long  coat  made  of  the  bark  of 
trees,  with  a  tuft  of  fine  straw  on  the  top  of  it,  and  when  the  per- 
son wears  it,  it  is  about  eight  or  nine  feet  high.  This  is  a  thing 
invented  by  the  men  to  keep  their  wives  in  awe,  who  are  so  igno- 
rant (or  at  least  are  obliged  to  pretend  to  be  so)  as  to  take  it  for 
a  wild  man  ;  and  indeed  no  one  but  he  who  knows  it  would  take 
it  to  be  a  man,  by  reason  of  the  dismal  noise  it  makes,  and  which 
but  few  of  the  natives  can  manage.  It  never  comes  abrbad  but 
in  the  night  time,  which  makes  it  have  the  better  effect.  When- 
ever the  men  have  any  dispute  with  the  women,  this  Mumbo 
Jumbo  is  sent  for  to  determine  it ;  which  is,  I  may  say,  always  in 
favor  of  the  men.  Whoever  is  in  the  coat,  can  order  the  others 
to  do  what  he  pleases,  either  fight,  kill,  or  make  prisoner ;  but  it 
must  be  observed,  that  no  one  is  allowed  to  come  armed  into  its 
presence.  When  the  women  hear  it  coming,  they  run  away  and 
hide  themselves ;  but  if  you  are  acquainted  with  the  person  who 
has  the  coat  on,  he  will  send  for  them  all  to  come  and  sit  down, 


118  FUNERAL  AND  BURIAL  RITES. 

and  sing  or  dance,  as  he  pleases  to  order  them ;  and  if  any  refuse 
to  come,  he  will  send  the  people  for  them,  and  then  whip  them. 
.  .  .  When  a  man  has  been  a  day  or  two  from  home,  the  wife 
salutes  him  on  her  knees  at  his  return,  and,  in  the  same  posture, 
she  always  brings  him  water  to  drink.  This,  I  believe,  is  the 
effect  of,  what  I  before  mentioned,  Mumbo  Jumbo." — Moore's 
Inland  Parts  of  Africa,  page  116-122. 


"  Among  the  Mandingoes,  if  a  married  woman  is  suspected  of 
being  unfaithful  to  her  husband,  the  aid  of  Mumbo  Jumbo  is  put 
in  requisition.  This  mysterious  personage,  so  frightful  to  the 
whole  race  of  African  matrons,  is  a  strong,  athletic  man,  disguised 
in  dry  plantain  leaves,  and  bearing  a  rod  in  his  hand,  which  he 
uses  on  proper  occasions  with  most  unsparing  severity.  When 
invoked  by  an  injured  husband,  he  appears  about  the  outskirts  of 
the  village  at  dusk,  and  commences  all  sorts  of  pantomimes. 
After  supper,  he  ventures  to  the  town  hall,  where  he  commences 
his  antics,  and  every  grown  person,  male  or  female,  must  be  pres- 
ent, or  subject  themselves  to  the  suspicion  of  having  been  kept 
away  by  a  guilty  conscience.  The  performance  is  kept  up  until 
midnight,  when  Mumbo  suddenly  springs  with  the  agility  of  the 
tiger  upon  the  offender,  and  chastises  her  most  soundly,  amidst  the 
shouts  and  laughter  of  the  multitude,  in  which  the  other  women 
join  more  heartily  than  anybody  else,  with  the  view,  no  doubt,  of 
raising  themselves  above  the  suspicion  of  such  infidelity." —  Wil- 
ton's Africa,  page  76. 


CHAPTER    XXI. 

/ 

FUNERAL    AND   BURIAL    RITES    IN    NEGROLAND. 

"  DRUMS  were  beating,  horns  blowing,  and  people  were  seen 
all  running  in  one  direction.  The  cause  was  a  funeral  dance,  and 
I  joined  the  crowd,  and  soon  found  myself  in  the  midst  of  the  en- 


FVNERAL  AND  BURIAL  RITES.  119 

tertainment.  The  dancers  were  most  grotesquely  got  up.  About 
a  dozen  huge  ostrich  feathers  adorned  their  helmets ;  either 
leopard  or  the  black  and  white  monkey  skins  were  suspended 
from  their  shoulders,  and  a  leather  tied  round  the  waist  covered  a 
large  iron  bell,  which  was  strapped  upon  the  loins  of  each  dancer 
like  a  woman's  old-fashioned  bustle.  This  they  rung  to  the  time 
of  the  dance  by  jerking  their  posteriors  in  the  most  absurd  man- 
ner. Every  dancer  wore  an  antelope's  horn  suspended  round  the 
neck,  which  he  blew  occasionally  in  the  height  of  his  excitement. 
These  instruments  produced  a  sound  partaking  of  the  braying  of 
a  donkey  and  the  screech  of  an  owl.  Crowds  of  men  rushed 
round  and  round  in  a  sort  of  '  galop  infernel,'  brandishing  their 
lances  and  iron-headed  maces,  and  keeping  tolerably  in  line  five 
or  six  deep,  following  the  leader  who  headed  them,  dancing  back- 
wards. The  women  kept  outside  the  line,  dancing  a  slow,  stupid 
step,  and  screaming  a  wild  and  most  inharmonious  chant."  — 
Baker's  Great  Basin  of  the  Nile,  page  165. 


"  I  had  noticed,  during  the  march  from  Latome,  that  the 
vicinity  of  every  town  was  announced  by  heaps  of  human  re- 
mains. Bones  and  skulls  formed  a  Golgotha  within  a  quarter  of 
a  mile  of  every  village.  Some  of  these  were  in  earthenware  pots, 
generally  broken ;  others  lay  strewn  here  and  there,  while  a  heap 
in  the  centre  showed  that  some  form  had  originally  been  observed 
in  their  disposition.  This  was  explained  by  an  extraordinary 
custom  most  rigidly  observed  by  the  Latookas.  Should  a  man 
be  killed  in  battle  the  body  is  allowed  to  remain  where  it  fell,  and 
is  devoured  by  the  vultures  and  hyenas ;  but  should  he  die  a  nat- 
ural death,  he  or  she  is  buried  in  a  shallow  grave  within  a  few 
feet  of  his  own  door,  in  a  little  court-yard  that  surrounds  each 
dwelling."  —  Baker's  Great  Basin  of  the  Nile,  page  142. 


"  The  chiefs  of  Unyamwezi  generally  are  interred  by  a  large 
assemblage  of  their  subjects  with  cruel  rites.  A  deep  pit  is  sunk, 
with  a  kind  of  vault  or  recess  projecting  from  it;  in  this  the 
corpse,  clothed  with  skin  and  hide,  and  holding  a  bow  in  the 
right  hand,  is  placed  sitting,  with  a  pot  of  pombe,  upon  a  dwarf- 
stool,  while  sometimes  one,  but  more  generally  three,  female 


120  FUNERAL  AND  BURIAL  RITES. 

slaves,  one  on  each  side  and  the  third  in  front,  are  buried  alive  to 
preserve  their  lord  from  the  horrors  of  solitude.  A  copious  liba- 
tion of  pombe  upon  the  heaped-up  earth  concludes  the  ceremony." 
Burtorfs  Africa,  page,  296. 


"  The  great  headmen  of  Wadoc  are  buried  almost  naked,  but 
retaining  their  bead-ornaments,  sitting  in  a  shallow  pit,  so  that 
the  fore-finger  can  project  above  the  ground.  With  each  man  are 
interred  alive  a  male  and  a  female  sjave,  the  former  holding  a  bill- 
hook, wherewith  to  cut  fuel  for  his  lord  in  the  cold  death- world, 
and  the  latter,  who  is  seated  upon  a  little  stool,  supports  his  head 
in  her  lap."  — Burton's  Africa,  page  98. 


"  At  this  funeral,  the  women  having  first  appeared  and  formed 
a  circle,  one  advanced  into  the  midst,  having  a  child  tied  on  her 
back,  and  went  wriggling  about  on  her  heels,  with  her  head  and 
hands  inclined  toward  the  ground.  Her  companions  sang  Fantee 
gongs ;  some  struck  pieces  of  iron  together,  three  others  clashed 
in  their  hands  calabashes  surrounded  with  a  loose  net-work  of 
beads ;  and  meanwhile,  men  beat  drums  with  their  fingers  in  the 
background.  Next  half  a  dozen  wild-looking  men  appeared, 
who  seemed  to  be  under  the  excitement  of  liquor,  and  their  waist- 
cloths  trailing  in  the  dust.  They  roared  out  songs ;  rushed  madly 
ten  or  a  dozen  yards  up  the  street,  twisting  violently  their 
shoulders,  arms,  and  legs;  then  wheeled  round  and  returned, 
stopping  and  circling  on  their  hams,  whilst  musicians  beat  drums 
and  dry  sticks,  and  loudly  joined  in  the  chorus."  —  Alexander's 
Africa,  Vol.  I.,  page  188. 


"  The  Kaffirs  differ  very  materially  from  all  the  neighboring 
nations  in  their  manner  of  disposing  of  the  dead.  Funeral  rites 
are  bestowed  only  on  the  bodies  of  their  chiefs,  and  of  their 
children.  The  first  are  generally  interred  very  deep  in  the  dung 
of  their  own  cattle  accumulated  in  the  kraals  or  places  where 
they  are  pent  up  at  nights ;  and  the  bodies  of  infants  are  most 
commonly  deposited  in  the  ant-hills  that  have  been  excavated  by 
the  ant-eaters.  The  common  people  are  exposed  to  be  devoured 


FUNERAL  AND  BURIAL  RITES.  121 

by  wolves.    As  these  animals  drag  them  away  immediately  into 
their  dens,  the  relations  of  the  deceased  are  in  no  danger  of  beino- 

o  o 

shocked  or  disgusted  with  the  sight  of  the  mangled  carcass.  A 
Kaffir,  in  consideration  of  this  piece  of  service  holds  the  life  of  a 
wotf  to  be  sacred,  at  least,  he  never  endeavors  to  destroy  it ;  the 
consequence  of  which  is,  that  the  country  swarms  with  this  vora- 
cious and  destructive  animal."  —  farrow's  Africa,  Vol.  I.,  page 
174. 


"  On  our  way  home,  I  saw  the  corpse  of  a  young  slave,  about 
twelve  years  of  age,  slung  to  a  pole,  and  carried  by  two  men. 
This  led  to  the  disclosure  of  a  fact,  of  which  I  had  hitherto  been 
ignorant ;  namely,  that  all  slaves,  except  a  few  favored  ones,  are 
considered  not  worth  the  trouble  of  a  decent  burial,  and  are  con- 
sequently taken,  and  thrown  into  the  water  which  runs  round  the 
town,  where  they  are  eaten  by  the  thousands  of  fishes  which  the 
river  contains."  —  Freeman's  Africa,  page  135. 


"  Every  one  is  buried  under  the  floor  of  his  own  house,  with- 
out monument  or  memorial;  and  among  the  commonalty  the 
house  continues  occupied  as  usual ;  but  among  the  great  there  is 
more  refinement,  and  it  is  ever  after  abandoned.  .  .  .  The 
bodies  of  slaves  are  dragged  out  of  town,  and  left  a  prey  to  vultures 
and  wild  beasts.  In  Kano  they  do  not  even  take  the  trouble  to 
convey  them  beyond  the  walls,  but  throw  the  corpse  into  the 
morass  or  nearest  pool  of  water."  —  Clappertori's  Africa,  Vol.  IV., 
page  55. 


"  A  death  had  occurred  in  a  village  about  a  mile  off,  and  the 
people  were  busy  beating  drums  and  firing  guns.  There  is  noth- 
ing more  heartrending  than  their  death-wails.  When  the 
natives  turn  their  eyes  to  the  future  world,  they  have  a  view 
cheerless  enough  of  their  own  utter  helplessness  and  hopeless- 
ness. They  fancy  themselves  completely  in  the  power  of  the 
disembodied  spirits,  and  look  upon  the  prospect  of  following  them 
as  the  greatest  of  misfortunes.  Hence  they  are  constantly  depre- 
cating the  wrath  of  departed  souls,  believing  that,  if  they  are 
11 


122  INDOLENCE  AND  IMPROVIDENCE. 

appeased,  there  is  no  other  cause  of  death  but  witchcraft,  which 
may  be  averted  by  charms."  —  Livingstone's  Africa,  page  477. 


"  One  never  expects  to  find  a  grave  nor  a  stone  of  remem- 
brance set  up  in  Africa;  the  very  rocks  are  illiterate." — Living- 
stone's Africa,  page  233. 


CHAPTER    XXII. 

INDOLENCE  AND  IMPROVIDENCE  OF  THE  NEGBOES. 

"  THE  natives  are  so  lazy  that  at  times  the  merchants  cannot, 
without  great  difficulty,  get  men  to  load  or  unload  their  ships. 
This  is  a  very  serious  grievance,  and  often  exposes  our  merchants 
to  great  difficulties  as  well  as  loss.  .  .  .  One  English  laborer, 
on  an  average,  does  more  work  than  any  twelve  Africans ;  and 
the  provision  of  the  latter  being  so  cheap  (one  penny  per  day  is 
sufficient  for  their  support),  they  have  always  plenty  to  eat.  I  am 
writing  from  actual  observation,  having  had  for  three  months  a 
number  of  hired  men  under  my  charge.  ...  If  a  man  is 
urged  to  do  anything  like  a  tenth  part  of  a  day's  work,  he  will  go 
away,  and  steal  sufficient  to  maintain  him  for  some  time ;  conse- 
quently, the  towns  on  the  coast  abound  with  thieves  and  vaga- 
bonds, who  will  not  work."  —  Duncan's  Africa,  Vol.  L,  page  40. 


"  Even  the  free  negroes  labor  merely  to  acquire  the  means  of 
gratifying  their  animal  enjoyment.  Negroes  are  indolent  by 
nature,  and  therefore  indisposed  to  labor.  They  perform  their 
tasks  carelessly,  and  have  no  idea  of  attention  and  punctuality,  — 
two  qualities  indispensable  for  a  good  servant.  If  a  service  is 
asked  of  a  negro,  he  commonly  shows  great  readiness  to  under- 
take it,  being  stimulated  with  the  hope  of  reward,  but  he  has  no 
idea  that  a  service  quickly  executed  has  double  value.  He  returns 


INDOLENCE  AND  IMPROVIDENCE.  123 

in  as  many  hours  as  he  should  have  taken  minutes,  and  is  quite 
surprised  at  being  found  fault  with  for  his  slowness.  He  will 
make  no  secret  of  his  having  in  the  mean  time  taken  a  stroll, 
visited  a  friend,  stopped  at  an  inn,  or  perhaps  performed  some 
other  work.  The  negro  thinks  it  is  quite  enough  to  have  per- 
formed the  service ;  as  to  when  or  how,  he  considers  that  a  matter 
of  no  moment."  —  Burmeister'ls  Black  Man,  page  15. 


"  Laziness  is  inherent  in  these  people,  for  which  reason,  although 
extremely  powerful,  they  will  not  work  unless  compelled  to  do  so. 

They  have  no  love  for  truth,  honor,  or  honesty."— 

Speke's  Africa,  page  27. 


"The  negro  has  been,  and  still  is,  thoroughly  misunderstood. 
However  severely  we  may  condemn  the  horrible  system  of  slavery, 
the  results  of  emancipation  have  proved  that  the  negro  does  not 
appreciate  the  blessings  of  freedom,  nor  does  he  show  the  slight- 
est feeling  of  gratitude  to  the  hand  that  broke  the  rivets  of  his 
fetters.  His  narrow  mind  cannot  embrace  that  feeling  of  pure 
philanthropy  that  first  prompted  England  to  declare  herself 
against  slavery,  and  he  only  regards  the  anti-slavery  movement 
as  a  proof  of  his  own  importance.  In  his  limited  horizon  he  is 
himself  the  important  object,  and  as  a  sequence  to  his  self-conceit, 
he  imagines  that  the  whole  world  is  at  issue  concerning  the  black 
man.  The  negro,  therefore,  being  the  important  question,  must 
be  an  important  person,  and  he  conducts  himself  accordingly,  — 
he  is  far  too  great  a  man  to  work.  Upon  this  point  his  natural 
character  exhibits  itself  most  determinedly.  Accordingly,  he 
resists  any  attempt  at  coercion  ;  being  free,  his  first  impulse  is  to 
claim  an  equality  with  those  whom  he  lately  served,  and  to  usurp 
a  dignity  with  absurd  pretensions,  that  must  inevitably  insure  the 
disgust  and  abhorrence  of  the  white  community."  —  Baker's  Great 
Basin  of  the  Nile,  page  197. 


"  My  next  effort  was  to  procure  laborers,  for  whom  I  invoked 
the  aid  of  Fana-Foro  and  the  neighboring  chiefs.  During  two 
days,  forty  negroes,  whom  I  hired  for  their  food  and  a,  per  diem  of 


124  INDOLENCE  AND  IMPROVIDENCE. 

twenty  cents,  wrote  faithfully  under  my  direction ;  but  the  con. 
slant  task  of  felling  trees,  digging  roots,  and  cleaving  ground 
was  so  unusual  for  savages,  that  the  entire  gang,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  a  dozen,  took  their  pay  in  rum  and  tobacco,  and  quitted  me. 
A  couple  of  days  more  devoted  to  such  endurance  drove  off  the 
remaining  twelve,  so  that  on  the  fifth  day  of  my  philanthropic 
enterprise  I  was  left  in  my  solitary  hut  with  a  single  attendant.  I 
had,  alas !  undertaken  a  task  altogether  unsuited  to  people  whose 
idea  of  earthly  happiness  and  duty  is  divided  between  palm  oil, 
concubinage,  and  sunshine.  I  found  it  idle  to  remonstrate  with 
the  king  about  the  indolence  of  his  subjects.  Fana-Toro  enter- 
tained very  nearly  the  same  opinion  as  his  slaves.  He  declared 
—  and  perhaps  very  sensibly  —  that  white  men  were  fools  to  work 
from  sunrise  to  sunset  every  day  of  their  lives ;  nor  could  he  com- 
prehend how  negroes  were  expected  to  follow  their  example; 
nay,  it  was  not  the  '  fashion  of  Africa; '  and,  least  of  all,  could 
his  majesty  conceive  how  a  man  possessed  of  so  much  merchan- 
dise and  property,  would  voluntarily  undergo  the  toils  I  was  pre- 
paring for  the  future.  .  .  .  For  a  while  I  tried  the  effect  of 
higher  wages ;  but  an  increase  of  rum,  tobacco,  and  coin,  could 
not  string  the  nerves  or  cord  the  muscles  of  Africa.  Four  men's 
labor  was  not  equivalent  to  one  day's  work  in  Europe  or  America. 
The  negro's  philosophy  was  both  natural  and  self-evident:  — why 
should  he  work  for  pay  when  he  could  live  without  it  ?  "  —  Canofs 
Twenty  Tears  of  an  African  Slaver,  page  417. 


"  A  writer  in  the  '  Southern  Planter  and  Fanner '  states  that 
a  gentleman  in  Charlotte  county,  Virginia,  thus  tested  the  com- 
parative results  of  white  and  black  labor.  He  furnished  thirteen 
negroes  with  mules  and  implements  and  provisions  to  raise  a  crop, 
and  at  the  same  time  furnished  an  outfit  to  two  white  men.  The 
negroes  raised  ninety-four  barrels  of  corn,  seven  stacks  of  oats,  and 
five  thousand  pounds  of  tobacco.  The  two  white  men,  with  a  little 
negro  girl  to  cook  for  them,  raised  one  hundred  and  twelve  and  a 
half  ban-els  of  corn,  ten  stacks  of  oats,  and  eight  thousand  pounds 
tobacco.  The  negroes  returned  the  mules  in  a  poor,  emaciated 
condition.  The  white  men  turned  theirs  over  fat  and  sleek.  The 
negroes  worked  four  mules,  the  whites  two.  The  gentleman 
referred  to  will,  this  year,  work  white  men  exclusively.  To  show 


TIMIDITY  AND   COWARDICE   OF  THE  NEGROES.          125 

the  improvidence  of  the  negroes,  he  said  the  cart  and  mules  were 
at  their  service  to  haul  wood ;  yet  they  preferred  to  burn  rails." 
—  Raleigh  (N.  (7.)  Register,  Jan.  17,  1868. 


"  Civilization  hitherto  has  made  very  tardy  progress  in  these 
African  wilds ;  the  black  inhabitants  of  which  are  so  indisposed 
to  labor,  and  so  wedded  to  their  nomadic  habits,  that  it  is  difficult 
to  get  them  to  settle  down  to  industrious  habits,  either  as  agricul- 
turists or  as  artisans ;  to  say  nothing  of  the  colonist  being  obliged 
to  be  at  all  times  prepared  to  oppose  their  predatory  incursions." 
—  Valdez's  Africa,  Vol.  IL,  page  109. 


"  The  great  national  vice  of  the  Africans  is  their  indolence, 
They  have  no  athletic  sports.  They  wonder  at  the  white  man  who 
walks  to  a"nd  fro  from  the  mere  love  of  walking." — Readers 
Savage  Africa,  page  448. 


"  I  saw  a  man  afflicted  with  palsy  in  his  head.  He  applied  to 
me  for  a  remedy,  but  I  could  only  recommend  him  to  bathe  him- 
self every  day  in  warm  water,  —  which  will  never  be  done;  for 
these  people  are  too  indolent  to  perform  any  labor  of  this  kind, 
even  if  it  be  to  save  their  lives."  < — Richardson's  Africa,  Vol.  II., 
page  303. 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

TIMIDITY  AND  COWARDICE  OF  THE  NEGROES. 

"  IN  their  warfare,  cunning  has  a  most  important  part.    They 

laugh  at  the  courage  of  the  white  man,  who  faces  his  enemy,  and 

delight  most  in  ambushes  and  sudden  surprises.    If  one  has  a 

quarrel  with  another,  he  lies  in  wait  for  him,  shoots  him  as  he  is 

11* 


126         TIMIDITY  AND  COWARDICE  OF  THE  KEGEOES. 

passing  by  the  way,  and  immediately  retreats.  Then,  of  course, 
the  dead  man's  friends  take  up  his  quarrel ;  then  ensue  other  am- 
bushes and  murders ;  frequently  a  dozen  villages  are  involved  in 
the  palaver,  and  the  killing  and  robbing  goes  on  for  months  and 
even  years,  each  party  acting  as  occasion  offers."  —  Du  Chaillu's 
Equatorial  Africa,  page  195. 


"  The  warriors  of  this  part  of  Africa — with  the  exception  of 
the  Fans  and  Osheba  —  are  not  overstocked  with  courage.  They 
applaud  tricks  that  are  inhumanly  cruel  and  cowardly,  and  seem 
to  be  quite  incapable  of  open  hand-to-hand  fight.  To  surprise 
man,  woman,  or  child  in  sleep,  and  kill  them  then ;  to  lie  in  am- 
bush in  the  woods  for  a  single  man,  and  kill  him  by  a  single  spear- 
thrust  before  he  can  defend  himself;  to  waylay  a  woman  goingto 
the  spring  for  water,  and  kill  her ;  or  to  attack  on  the  river  a  ca- 
noe much  smaller  and  weaker  than  the  attackers,  —  these  are  the 
warlike  feats  I  have  heard  most  praised,  and  seen  oftenest  done 
in  this  part  of  Africa."  —  Du  Chaittu's  Equatorial  Africa,  page  131. 


"  In  war,  they  show  no  bravery,  although  on  the  hunt  they  are 
certainly  brave  enough.  They  despise  boldness  and  admire  cun- 
ning ;  prefer  to  gain  by  treachery,  if  possible ;  have  no  mercy  or 
consideration  for  the  enemy's  women  and  children ;  and  are  cruel 
to  those  who  full  in  their  power."  —  Du  Chaillu's  Equatorial  Africa^ 
page  379. 


"  Besides  cowardice,  their  principal  fault  is  thieving,  — a  dispo- 
sition which  they  never  fail  to  evince ;  and  nothing  comes  amiss  to 
them,  from  wholesale  robbery  to  petty  prigging.  Like  the  true 
coward,  too,  they  are  bullies  when  they  meet  those  more  timid 
than  themselves."  —  Hutchinsorfs  Africa,  Vol.  II.,  page  22. 


"  During  the  war,  which  has  continued  these  four  months,  the 
loss  on  the  part  of  the  Yaoorie  has  been  about  a  half-dozen  men 
killed,  and  the  slaughter  on  the  part  of  the  rebels,  it  is  said,  has 
been  no  less.  This  sanguinary  contest  is  a  specimen  of  their  war- 


TIMIDITY  AND   COWARDICE  OF  THE  NEGROES.        127 

fare,  so  that  there  will  never  be  any  great  danger  of  depopulation 
from  foreign  wars  or  domestic  broils.  .  .  .  The  '  great  war,' 
for  which  there  was  said  to  have  been  such  mighty  preparations 
in  Nouffie,  and  which  caused  so  much  consternation  in  this  city 
an  evening  or  two  ago,  has  terminated  in  the  capture  of  a  herd  of 
tie  King  of  Wowow's  bullocks  near  the  walls  of  his  town."- — 
Lander's  Travels  in  Africa,  Vol.  I.,  pages  273,  275. 


"  About  two  o'clock,  as  I  was  lying  asleep  upon  a  bullock's  hide 
behind  the  door  of  the  hut,  I  was  awakened  by  the  screams  of 
•women,  and  a  general  clamor  and  confusion  among  the  inhab- 
itants. At  first  I  suspected  that  the  Bambawans  had  actually  en- 
t;red  the  town ;  but  observing  my  boy  upon  the  top  of  one  of  the 
hits,  I  called  to  him  to  know  what  was  the  matter.  He  informed 
ne  that  the  Moors  were  come  a  second  time  to  steal  the  cattle, 
aid  that  they  were  now  close  to  the  town.  I  mounted  the  roof  of 
;he  hut,  and  observed  a  large  herd  of  bullocks  coming  toward 
the  town,  followed  by  five  Moors  on  horseback,  who  drove  the 
cattle  forward  with  their  muskets.  When  they  had  reached  the 
wells,  which  are  close  to  the  town,  the  Moors  selected  from  the 
herd  sixteen  of  the  finest  beasts,  and  drove  them  off  at  a  gallop. 
During  this  transaction  the  town  people,  to  the  number  of  five 
hundred,  stood  collected  close  to  the  walls  of  the  town ;  and  when 
the  Moors  drove  the  cattle  away,  though  they  passed  within  pis- 
tol-shot of  them,  the  inhabitants  scarcely  made  a  show  of  resist- 
ance. I  saw  only  four  muskets  fired,  which,  being  loaded  with 
gunpowder  of  the  negroes'  own  manufacture,  did  no  execution." 
—  Mungo  Park's  1st  Journal,  page  85. 


"  In  an  attempt  to  storm  or  subdue  Cooniah,  the  capital  of  the 
rebellious  province  of  Ghoober,  the  number  of  fighting  men 
brought  before  the  town  could  not,  I  think,  have  been  less  than 
fifty  or  sixty  thousand,  horse  and  foot,  of  which  the  foot  amounted 
to  more  than  nine-tenths.  For  the  depth  of  more  than  two  hun- 
dred yards,  all  round  the  walls,  was  a  dense  circle  of  men  and 
horses.  The  horse  kept  out  of  the  reach  of  bow-shot,  while  the 
foot  went  up,  as  they  felt  courage  or  inclination,  and  kept  up  a 
struggling  lire  with  about  thirty  muskets  and  the  shooting  of  ar- 


128         TIMIDITY  AND    COWARDICE   OF  THE  NEGROES. 

rows.  .  .  .  These  fellows,  whenever  they  fired  their  pieces,  ran 
out  of  bow-shot  to  load.  All  of  them  were  slaves;  not  a  single 
Felatah  had  a  musket.  The  enemy  kept  up  a  sure  and  slow  fight, 
seldom  throwing  away  their  arrows,  until  they  saw  an  opportunity 
of  letting  fly  with  effect.  Now  and  then  a  single  horseman  would 
gallop  up  to  the  ditch,  and  brandish  his  spear,  taking  care  to  cover 
himself  with  his  large  leathern  shield,  and  return  as  fast  as  h3 
went,  generally  calling  out  lustily,  when  he  got  among  his  owi 
party,  '  Shields  to  the  wall ! '  '  You  people  of  Godado,  why  dont 
you  hasten  to  the  wall  ? '  To  which  some  voices  would  call  out 
'  Oh  !  you  have  a  good  large  shield  to  cover  you ! '  The  cry  o' 
•  Shields  to  the  wall ! '  was  constantly  heard  from  the  several  chiefc 
to  their  troops;  but  they  disregarded  the  call,  and  neither  chiefi 
nor  vassals  moved  from  the  spot.  ...  At  the  conclusion  oi 
this  memorable  battle,  in  which  nothing  was  concluded,  the  whole 
army  set  off"  in  the  greatest  confusion,  men  and  quadrupeds  tum- 
bling over  each  other,  and  upsetting  everything  that  fell  in  their 
way."—  Clappertoii's  Africa,  Vol.  IV.,  page  242. 

"  These  unfortunate  people  seldom  think  of  defending  their 
habitations,  but  rather  give  them  up,  and  by  that  means  gain  time 
to  escape." — Denham  and  Clappertoris  Africa,  Vol.  II.,  page  121. 

"It  is  only  self-interest  that  makes  the  African  brave.  I  have 
seen  a  small  cow,  trotting  up  with  tail  erect,  break  aline  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  men  carrying  goods  not  their  own."  —  Burton's 
Africa,  page  242. 


"  It  is  confidently  stated  by  the  missionaries  that  the  King  of 
Kongo  raised  the  incredibly  large  army  of  nine  hundred  thousand 
men.  They  say  very  little,  however,  for  the  bravery  or  dis- 
cipline of  this  immense  army,  when  they  add  that  the  main  di- 
vision of  it  was  entirely  routed  by  four  hundred  Portuguese  muske- 
teers."—  Wilson's  Africa,  page  322. 

"Twenty  whites  will  put  to  flight  a  thousand  Congoans."  — 
Ogilbifs  Africa,  page  533. 


TIMIDITY  AND   COWARDICE   OF  THE  NEGROES.         129 

"  I  was  fortunately  enabled  to  buy  two  camels  instead  of  sump- 
ttr  oxen,  which  give  great  trouble  on  the  road  during  the  dry 
season,  especially  if  not  properly  attended  to,  and  prepared  every- 
thing for  my  journey ;  but  the  people  in  these  countries  are  all 
cowards,  and  as  I  was  to  go  alone  without  a  caravan,  I  was  un- 
able to  find  a  good  servant."  —  Bartl^s  Africa,  Vol.  I.,  page  503. 

"  I  witnessed  their  drill  exercise  a  short  time  before  leaving 
Fort  Royal,  and  it  was  truly  amusing.  During  the  exercises,  they 
practised  them  in  the  manual  of  arms,  and  loading  and  firing 
blank  cartridge ;  and  when  the  command,  '  Fire,'  was  given,  nearly 
one  half  of  the  line  squatted  and  dropped  down,  frightened  at  the 
noise  of  the  guns  in  their  own  hands.  I  also  conversed  with  sev- 
eral of  them.  They  told  me  they  never  expected  it  of  the  Yan- 
kees to  make  them  fight ;  that  they  could  not  fight ;  '  Me  drap 
right  down  gone  dead,  I  get  so  skeered."  —  Correspondence  of  a 
Michigan  officer  to  the  National  Intelligencer,  August  13,  1862. 

Of  the  negroes  at  Harper's  Ferry,  and  especially  of  those  ne- 
groes who  were  more  immediately  concerned  with  John  Brown 
n  his  Harper's  Ferry  raid,  and  who  were  afterward  captured 
and  punished,  the  general  newspaper  accounts  of  that  time 
concur  in  representing  them  all  (so  very  unlike  their  fearless 
but  misguided  Anglo-American  leaders)  as  the  complete 
victims  of  cowardice  and  trepidation.  Thus : — 

"  The  blacks  made  no  resistance,  but  begged  for  mercy.  .  . 
They  ran  with  all  the  swiftness  that  their  fears  could  excite. 
.  .  .  Green,  the  negro,  is  a  large  man,  with  a  very  bad  coun- 
tenance and  expression,  and  a  most  arrant  coward.  He  cringes 
and  begs  to  every  person  who  approaches  him." 


How  the  negro  troops  behaved  on  the  occasion  of  the 
attempt  to  blow  up  Petersburg,  Virginia,  on  the  30th  of  July, 
1864,  may  be  seen  by  reference  to  the  following  Federal  ac- 
count from  the  regular  army  correspondent  of  a  New  York 
newspaper :  — 


130  AFRICAN  ANECDOTES. 

"  The  rebels,  exasperated  at  sight  of  the  negroes,  fought  with 
the  fury  of  devils,  and,  reinforcements  coming  to  their  aid,  the  tide 
of  battle  turned.  The  colored  troops  gave  way  and  broke  in  con- 
fusion, when  the  rebels,  having  repulsed  their  charge,  charged 
them  in  turn,  and  then  they  ran,  a  terror-stricken,  disordered  mass 
of  fugitives,  to  the  rear  of  our  white  troops.  In  vain  their  officers 
endeavored  to  rally  them  with  all  the  persuasion  of  tongue,  sabre, 
and  pistol.  Whatever  discredit  attaches  to  the  negroes  them- 
selves, their  white  officers  are  beyond  reproach." 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 

AFRICAN  ANECDOTES. 

"  So  long  as  the  negro  can  laugh,  he  jjares  little  against  whom 
the  joke  goes."  —  Du  Chaillu's  Equatorial^Africa,  page  330. 

"  The  enraged  wife  rushed  out  to  seek  her  supposed  rival,  and 
a  battle  ensued.  Women's  fights  in  this  country  always  begin  by 
their  throwing  off  their  dengui,  that  is,  stripping  themselves  en- 
tirely naked.  The  challenger  having  thus  denuded  herself,  her 
enemy  showed  pluck  and  answered  the  challenge  by  promptly 
doing  the  same ;  so  that  the  two  elegant  figures  immediately  went 
at  it,  literally  tooth  and  nail,  for  they  fought  like  cats,  and  be- 
tween the  rounds  reviled  each  other  in  language  the  most  filthy 
that  could  possibly  be  uttered.  Mayolo  being  asleep  in  his  house, 
and  no  one  seemingly  ready  to  interfere,  I  went  myself  and  sep- 
arated the  two  furies." — Du,  ChaiUiCs  Ashango-Land,  page  187. 

"  No  one  can  rely  upon  them  even  for  a  moment.  Dog  wit,  or 
any  silly  remark,  will  set  them  giggling.  Any  toy  will  amuse 
them.  Highly  conceited  of  their  personal  appearance,  they  are 
forever  cutting  their  hair  in  different  fashions,  to  surprise  a  friend ; 
or  if  a  rag  be  thrown  away,  they  will  all  in  turn  fight  for  it  to 


AFRICAN  ANECDOTES.  131 

bind  on  their  heads,  then  on  their  loins  or  spears,  peacocking 
about  with  it  before  their  admiring  comrades." — Speke's  Africa, 
page  29. 


"  Should  one  happen  to  have  anything  specially  to  commu- 
nicate to  his  master  in  camp,  he  will  enter  giggling,  sidle  up  to 
the  pole  of  a  hut,  commence  scratching  his  back  with  it,  then 
stretch  and  yawn,  and  gradually,  in  bursts  of  loud  laughter,  slip 
down  to  the  ground  on  his  stern,  when  he  drums  with  his  hands 
on  the  top  of  a  box  until  summoned  to  know  what  he  has  at  heart, 
when  he  delivers  himself  in  a  peculiar  manner,  laughs  and  yawns 
again,  and,  saying  it  is  time  to  go,  walks  off  in.  the  same  way  as 
he  came."  —  Speke's  Africa,  page  29. 


"  Proceeding  to  another  court,  we  sat  in  the  shade  together, 
when  the  women  returned  again,  but  were  all  dumb,  because  my 
interpreters  dared  not  for  their  lives  say  anything,  even  on  my 
account,  to  the  king's  women.  Getting  tired,  I  took  out  my 
sketch-book  and  drew  Lubuga,  the  pet,  which  amused  the  king 
immensely,  as  he  recognized  her  cockscomb.  Then  twenty  naked 
virgins,  the  daughters  of  Wakungu,  all  smeared  and  shining  with 
grease,  each  holding  a  small  square  of  calico  for  a  fig-leaf,  marched 
in  a  line  before  us,  as  a  fresh  addition  to  the  harem,  whilst  the 
happy  fathers  floundered,  yauzigging  on  the  ground,  delighted  to 
find  their  darlings  appreciated  by  the  king.  Seeing  this  done  in 
such  a  quiet,  mild  way  before  all  my  men,  who  dared  not  lift 
their  heads  to  see  it,  made  me  burst  into  a  roar  of  laughter,  and 
the  king,  catching  the  infection  from  me,  laughed  as  well ;  but  the 
laughing  did  not  end  there,  —  for  the  pages,  for  once  giving  way 
to  nature,  kept  bursting,  —  my  men  chuckled  in  sudden  gusts,  — 
while  even  the  women,  holding  their  mouths  for  fear  of  detection, 
responded, — and  we  all  laughed  together.  Then  a  sedate  old 
dame  rose  from  the  squatting  mass,  ordered  the  virgins  to  right- 
about, and  marched  them  off,  showing  their  still  more  naked 
reverses." —  Speke^s  Africa,  page  357. 


A  negro  dwarf,  who  measured  three  feet  all  but  an  inch,  the 


132  AFRICAN  ANECDOTES. 

keeper  of  Princess  Miram's  keys,  sat  before  her  with  the  insignia 
of  oflice  on  his  shoulder,  and  richly  dressed  in  Soudan  tobes. 
This  little  person  afforded  us  a  subject  of  conversation  and  much 
laughter.  Miram  inquired  whether  we  had  such  little  fellows  in 
my  country ;  and  when  I  answered  in  the  affirmative,  she  said, 
4  Ah,  gieb  !  what  are  they  good  for  ?  Do  they  ever  have  children  ?  ' 
I  answered,  '  Yes ;  that  we  had  instances  of  their  being  fathers  to 
tall  and  proper  men.'  '  Oh,  wonderful ! '  she  replied ;  4 1  thought 
so ;  they  must  be  better  than  this  dog  of  mine ;  for  I  have  given 
him  eight  of  my  handsomest  and  youngest  slaves,  but  it  is  all  to 
no  purpose.  I  would  give  a  hundred  bullocks  and  twenty  slaves 
to  the  woman  who  would  bear  this  wretch  a  child.'  The  wretch, 
and  an  ugly  wretch  he  was,  shook  his  large  head,  grinned,  and 
slobbered  copiously  from  his  extensive  mouth,  at  this  flattering 
proof  of  his  mistress'  partiality."  —  Denkani's  Africa,  Vol.  III., 
page  3. 


44  Their  supreme  happiness  consists  in  having  an  abundance  of 
meat.  Asking  a  man,  who  was  more  grave  and  thoughtful  than 
his  companions,  what  was  the  finest  sight  he  could  desire,  he 
instantly  replied,  '  A  great  fire  covered  with  pots  full  of  meat,' 
adding,  4  How  ugly  the  fire  looks  without  a  pot ! ' "  —  Moffafs  Afri- 
ca, page  306. 


44  They  are  very  superstitious  in  some  things,  one  of  which  is, 
that  if  they  know  anybody  boils  the  sweet  milk  which  they  buy 
of  them,  they  will  not,  for  any  consideration,  sell  that  person  any 
more,  because  they  say  that  boiling  the  milk  makes  the  cows 
dry."  —  Moore's  Inland  Parts  of  Africa,  page  35. 


44  During  my  absence,  a  French  captain,  who  was  one  of  our 
most  attentive  friends,  had  left  a  donkey,  which  he  brought 
from  the  Cape  de  Verds,  for  my  especial  delectation.  I  at  once 
resolved  to  bestow  the  '  long-eared  convenience  '  on  Prince  Free- 
man, not  only  as  a  type,  but  a  testimonial ;  yet,  before  a  week 
was  over,  the  unlucky  quadruped  reappeared  at  my  quarters, 
with  a  message  from  the  prince,  that  it  might  do  well  enough  for 


AFRICAN  ANECDOTES.  133 

a  bachelor  like  me,  but  its  infernal  voice  was  enough  to  cause  the 
miscarriage  of  an  entire  harem,  if  not  of  every  honest  women 
throughout  his  jurisdiction.  The  superstition  spread  like  wildfire. 
The  women  were  up  in  arms  against  the  beast ;  and  I  had  no  rest 
till  I  got  rid  of  its  serenades  by  despatching  it  to  Monrovia,  where 
the  dames  and  damsels  were  not  afraid  of  donkeys  of  any  dimen- 
sions."—  Canofs  Twenty  Tears  of  an  African  Slaver,  page  375. 


"  The  women,  in  order  not  to  accustom  themselves  to  much 
talking  or  scolding,  take  every  morning,  betimes,  a  little  water  in 
their  mouths,  which  they  keep  there  till  all  their  household  work 
is  done ;  but  then  putting  it  out,  give  their  tongues  free  liberty." 
—  Ogilby^s  Africa,  page  364. 


"When  the  chief  arrived,  I  was  busy  preparing  some  skins  of 
birds  and  snakes,  which  caused  no  small  amount  of  jesting 
amongst  his  followers.  One  fellow,  more  inquisitive  and  imper- 
tinent than  the  rest,  approached  close  to  me,  and,  seizing  one  of 
the  reptiles  by  the  tail,  held  it  up  before  the  multitude,  which 
were  now  thronging  my  tent  to  inconvenience,  and,  addressing  to 
it  some  unintelligible  words,  the  whole  assembly  burst  out  into  a 
deafening  roar  of  laughter.  Indeed,  the  mirth  became  so  out- 
rageous as  to  throw  the  party  into  convulsions,  many  casting 
themselves  at  full  length  on  the  ground,  with  their  hands  tightly 
clasped  across  their  stomachs  as  if  in  fear  of  bursting,  whilst  their 
greasy  cheeks  became  furrowed  with  tears  trickling  down  in 
streams."  — Anderssorfs  Africa,  page  345. 


"The  ideas  of  a  Namaqua,  as  to  the  formation  and  rotary 
motion  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  if  not  very  profound,  are  unques- 
tionably very  original.  The  sun,  by  some  of  the  people  of  this 
benighted  land,  is  considered  to  be  a  mass  of  fat,  which  descends 
nightly  to  the  sea,  where  it  is  laid  hold  of  by  the  chief  of  a  white 
man's  ship,  who  cuts  away  a  portion  of  tallow,  and,  giving 
the  rest  a  kick,  it  bounds  away,  sinks  under  the  wave,  goes  round 
below,  and  then  comes  up  again  in  the  east."  —  Anderssorfs  Afri- 
ca, page  257. 

12 


134  FAILURE   OF  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISES. 


CHAPTER    XXV. 

UTTER  FAILURE  AND  INUTILITY  OF  ALL  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISES 
IN  NEGROLAND. 

"  THE  Austrian  mission-station  of  St.  Croix  consists  of  about 
twenty  grass  huts  on  a  patch  of  dry  ground  close  to  the  river. 
The  church  is  a  small  hut,  but  neatly  arranged.  Herr  Morlang, 
chief  of  the  establishment,  acknowledged,  with  great  feeling,  that 
the  mission  was  absolutely  useless  among  such  savages ;  that  he 
had  worked  with  much  zeal  for  many  years,  but  that  the  natives 
were  utterly  impracticable.  They  were  far  below  the  brutes,  as 
the  latter  show  signs  of  affection  to  those  who  are  kind  to  them ; 
while  the  natives,  oil  the  contrary,  are  utterly  obtuse  to  all  feel- 
ings of  gratitude.  He  described  the  people  as  lying  and  deceit- 
ful to  a  superlative  degree ;  the  more  they  receive  the  more  they 
desire,  but  in  return  they  will  do  nothing.  Twenty  or  thirty  of 
these  disgusting,  ash-smeared,  stark-naked  brutes,  armed  with 
clubs  of  hard  wood  brought  to  a  point,  were  lying  idly  about  the 
station.  .  .  .  Near  by  are  the  graves  of  several  members  of 
the  mission,  who  have  left  their  bones  in  this  horrid  land,  while 
not  one  convert  has  been  made  from  the  mission  of  St.  Croix." — 
Bakers  Great  Basin  of  the  NUet  page  53. 


"  The  state  of  the  East- African  heathen,  their  indifference  toward 
all  that  is  spiritual,  or  to  any  progress  in  mere  human  affairs  (they 
are,  as  Rebrnann  rightly  says,  '  profitable  in  nothing,  either  to 
God  or  to  the  world1) ,  may  easily  beget  in  the  heart  of  a  mission- 
ary a  mood  of  disappointment,  in  which  he  would  say,  with 
Isaiah,  '  I  have  labored  in  vain ;  I  have  spent  my  strength  for 
nought,  and  in  vain.1" —  Krapf'a  Africa,  page  507. 


"From  this  time  forward  the  king  began  to  develop  his  treach- 
erous character,  promising,  in  the  hope  of  presents,  to  promote  my 
journey  to  Uniamesi,  while  all  the  while  he  had  resolved  to  prevent 
it.  Extortion,  too,  followed  upon  extortion, — his  magician.Wessiri, 


FAILURE   OF  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISES.  135 

speaking  and  acting  in  the  king's  name.  I  saw  the  stock  of 
goods  which  I  had  intended  for  Uniamesi  gradually  melting 
away;  and  when,  by  order  of  the  king,  I  was  obliged  to  part  with 
piece  after  piece  of  the  calico  which  I  had  reserved  for  my  further 
journey,  I  could  not  suppress  rny  tears.  The  king  observed  them, 
and  asked  the  cause.  Wessiri  replied  that  I  wept  because  of  the 
loss  of  my  goods ;  when  I  rejoined  that  I  was  not  weeping  on 
that  account,  but  because  the  things  had  been  given  me  by 
good  people  at  home,  who  wished  to  send  the  Book  of  Life  to  all 
Africans,  with  which  object  I  had  made  the  journey ;  whereas  I 
was  now  deprived  of  my  property,  and  the  good  design  of  my 
friends  was  defeated  "  —  Krapfs  Eastern  Africa,  page  260. 


"  A  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England,  the  Rev.  Thomas 
Thompson,  proceeded  to  the  Gold  Coast  in  1751,  with  the  view 
of  attempting  the  introduction  of  the  Christian  religion.  He  re- 
mained chaplain  at  the  Castle  for  four  years,  and  brought  home 
a  few  natives  for  education,  one  of  whom,  Philip  Quacoe,  was  edu- 
cated at  Oxford,  and  was  afterward  chaplain  at  Cape  Coast  for 
the  long  space  of  fifty  years.  No  result  followed  his  labors.  It 
is  even  said  that,  at  the  approach  of  death,  he  had  recourse  to 
fetich  practices." —  CruickshanK's  Africa,  Vol.  I., page  183. 


"  The  most  important  and  interesting  portion  of  the  last  num- 
ber of  the  'Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Society  of  London'  is  the 
discussion  before  the  Anthropological  Society  on  the  efforts  of 
missionaries  among  savages,  —  a  discussion  inaugurated  by  Mr. 
Winwood  Reade,  author  of  '  Savage  Africa,'  who  stated,  as  the 
result  of  his  observation  in  Equatorial  Africa,  that  missionary  ef- 
forts were  total  failures,  even  when  directed  by  men  eminently 
qualified  for  the  task.  So  far  from  '  professing  Christians '  among 
negroes  being  better  than  the  heathen,  they  were,  if  possible, 
worse.  '  In  plain  words,'  said  Mr.  Reade,  '  I  found  that  every 
Christian  negress  was  a  prostitute,  and  that  every  Christian  negro 
was  a  thief.'  Mr.  Walker,  of  fourteen  years'  Gaboon  experience, 
confirmed  this  testimony.  Captain  Burton,  in  a  very  forcible 
speech,  followed  suit,  giving  the  result  of  his  observations,  not 
merely  in  Africa,  but  in  Western  India,  the  prairie  tribes  of 


136  FAILURE  OF  MISSIONARY  'ENTERPRISES. 

America,  and  tropical  Africa  generally;   missionaiy  efforts,  he 
said,  being  failures  all.     The  following  is  characteristic :  — 

'A  VERY  DEAR  PERSON  TO  us.'  —  With  the  last  African 
or  Mombas  mission  I  am  personally  acquainted.  Years  ago 
this  ill-fated  establishment  had  spent  a  sum  of  £12,000,  and 
what  were  the  results?  In  1857,  when  calling  at  the  mis- 
sionary station  of  Rabbai  Mpia,  near  Mombas,  I  was  informed 
that  a  wild-looking  negro,  whose  peculiar  looks  caused  me 
to  get  my  bowie-knife  handy,  was  •  a  very  dear  person  to  us ; 
he  is  our  first  and  only  convert.'  '  Yes,'  added  the  husband,  with 
an  amount  of  simplicity  which  might  provoke  a  smile  but  for  the 
melancholy  thought  that  it  breeds,  '  and  he  was  prepared  for 
Christianity  by  an  attack  of  insanity,  caused  by  the  death  of  all 
his  relations,  and  lasting  five  years."  —  London  Dispatch,  July  16, 
1865. 


"  Mr.  Phillips,  of  Abeokuta,  with  the  rest  of  the  missionaries  in 
Central  Africa,  have  been  expelled  from  the  country,  suffering 
the  loss  of  their  entire  property.  Mr.  Phillips  is  at  Lagos  in  a 
destitute  condition."  —  New  York  Tribune,  February  11,  1868. 


"The  Catholic  missionaries  threatened  the  natives  with  hell 
fire  if  they  refused  to  adopt  the  marriage  system  of  the  Christians. 
The  natives  replied  that  they  were  quite  content  to  go  where  their 
fathers  had  gone  before  them.  But  the  firmest  opponents  of  these 
innovations  were  the  women ;  and,  as  every  one  knows,  a  priest- 
hood is  only  powerful  when  supported  on  female  pillars.  The 
ladies  of  the  court,  who  despised  the  monks  on  account  of  their 
chastity,  determined  to  take  advantage  of  this  pious  weakness. 
Accordingly  they  chose  a  rivulet,  which  flowed  before  the  garden 
of  the  missionaries,  as  their  place  of  bathing,  and  there  exhibited 
themselves  during  the  whole  day,  often  in  very  indecent  attitudes. 
The  afflicted  fathers  laid  their  distress  before  the  king,  but  soon 
found  the  evil  doubled  by  this  proof  of  the  effect  which  it  had  pro- 
duced."—  Rtadds  Savage  Africa,  page  442. 


«'  They  dread  a  superhuman  power,  and  they  fear  and  worship 


FAILURE   OF  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISES.  137 

it  as  being  a  measureless  source  of  evil.  It  is  scarcely  correct  to 
call  this  devil-worship,  for  this  is  a  title  of  contrast,  presuming 
that  there  has  been  a  choice  of  the  evil  in  preference  to  the  good. 
The  fact  in  their  case  seems  to  be,  that  good  in  will,  or  good  in 
action,  are  ideas  foreign  to  their  minds.  Selfishness  cannot  be 
more  intense,  nor  more  exclusive  of  all  kindness  and  generosity  or 
charitable  aifection,  than  it  is  generally  found  among  these  bar- 
barians. The  inconceivableness  of  such  motives  to  action  has 
often  been  found  a  strong  obstacle  to  the  influence  of  the  Christian 
missionary.  They  can  worship  nothing  good,  because  they  have 
no  expectation  of  good  from  anything  powerful.  They  have 
mysterious  words  or  mutterings,  equivalent  to  what  we  term  in- 
cantations, which  is  the  meaning  of  the  Portuguese  word  from 
which  originated  the  term  'fetich.'"  —  Footers  Africa  and  the 
American  Flag,  page  55. 

\ 

"  Soon  an  aged  woman,  to  whom  the  missionary  had  often 
spoken  of  the  glorious  gospel,  joined  the  little  praying-circle. 
The  change  in  this  old  woman,  Yuwa,  was  very  sticking.  She 
had  seemed  to  be  one  of  the  most  unpromising  characters  in  the 
town  of  Nyaro,  and  the  first  time  the  missionary,  who  had  charge 
of  the  town,  asked  her  why  she  did  not  regularly  attend  the 
chapel,  she  replied,  '  Me  go  to  church,  and  you  no  pay  me ! '"  — 
Scotfs  Day  Dawn  in  Africa,  page  89. 


"  A  missionary  at  Maopongo  having  met  one  of  the  queens, 
and  finding  her  mind  inaccessible  to  all  his  instructions,  deter- 
mined to  use  sharper  remedies,  and,  seizing  a  whip,  began  to  ap- 
ply it  to  her  majesty's  person.  The  effect  he  describes  as  most 
auspicious ;  every  successive  blow  opened  her  eyes  more  and  more 
to  the  truth,  as  she  at  length  declared  herself  wholly  unable  to 
resist  such  affecting  arguments  in  favor  of  the  Catholic  doctrine." 
—  Murray's  African  Discoveries,  page  54. 


"lam  not  to  be  understood  as  intimating  that  any  of  the 
numerous  tribes  are  anxious  for  instruction ;  they  are  not  the  in- 
quiring spirits  we  read  of  in  other  countries ;  they  do  not  desire 
12* 


138        MISCELLANEOUS  PECULIARITIES,   HABITS,  ETC. 

the  gospel,  because  they  know  nothing  about  either  it  or  its  bene- 
fits." —  Livingstones  Africa,  page  544. 


"  The  town  swarmed  with  thieves  and  drunkards,  whose  only 
object  in  life  was  sensual  gratification.  Nowhere  else  had  I  met 
with  so  many  impudent  and  shameless  beggars.  When  a  mis- 
sionary attempted  to  preach  to  a  crowd  in  the  streets  or  market, 
it  was  very  common  for  some  of  them  to  reply  by  laying  their 
hands  on  their  stomachs,  and  saying, '  White  man,  I  am  hungry.'" 
—  Boweifs  Central  Africa,  page  101. 

"All  missionaries  praise  the  African  for  his  strict  observance  of 
the  Sabbath.  He  would  have  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  Sab- 
baths in  the  year,  if  possible,  and  he  would  as  scrupulously  ob- 
serve them  all."  —  Burton's  Wanderings  in  West  Africa,  Vol.  I., 
page  266. 


"  In  the  negroes1  own  country  the  efforts  of  the  missionaries  for 
hundreds  of  years  have  had  no  effect ;  the  missionary  goes  away 
and  the  people  relapse  into  barbarism.  Though  a  people  may  be 
taught  the  arts  and  sciences  known  by  more  gifted  nations,  unless 
they  have  the  power  of  progression  in  themselves,  they  must  in- 
evitably relapse  in  the  course  of  time  into  their  former  state."  — 
Du  Chaittu's  Ashango-Land,  page  436. 


CHAPTER    XXVI. 

MISCELLANEOUS    PECULIARITIES,     HABITS,    MANNERS,    AND    CUS- 
TOMS  OF  THE  NEGROES  IN  NEGROLAND. 

"  THEIR  mode  of  salutation  is  quite  singular.     They  throw 
themselves  on    their  backs  on    the  ground,   and,  rolling  from 


MISCELLANEOUS  PECULIARITIES,   HABITS,  ETC.        139 

side  to  side,  slap  the  outside  of  their  thighs  as  expressions  of 
thankfulness  and  welcome,  uttering  the  words,  '  Kina  bomba.' 
This  method  of  salutation  was  to  me  very  disagreeable,  and  I 
never  could  get  reconciled  to  it.  I  called  out,  '  Stop  —  stop !  I 
don't  want  that ! '  but  they,  imagining  I  was  dissatisfied,  only 
tumbled  about  more  furiously,  and  slapped  their  thighs  with 
greater  vigor.  The  men  being  totally  unclothed,  this  performance 
imparted  to  my  mind  a  painful  sense  of  their  extreme  degrada- 
dation."  —  Livingstone's  Africa,  page  590. 


"  They  fear  all  manner  of  phantoms,  and  have  half-developed 
ideas  and  traditions  of  something  or  other,  they  know  not  what. 
The  pleasures  of  animal  life  are  ever  present  to  their  minds  as  the 
supreme  good."  —  Livingstone's  Africa,  page  477. 


*'  Sambanza  gave  us  a  detailed  account  of  the  political  affairs 
of  the  country,  and  of  Kolimbota's  evil  doings,  and  next  morning 
performed  the  ceremony  called  '  Kasendi,'  for  cementing  our 
friendship.  It  is  accomplished  thus :  The  hands  of  the  parties  are 
joined  (in  this  case  Pitsane  and  Sambanza  were  the  parties  en- 
gaged) ;  small  incisions  are  made  on  the  clasped  hands,  on  the 
pits  of  the  stomach  of  each,  and  on  the  right  cheeks  and  foreheads. 
A  small  quantity  of  blood  is  taken  off  from  these  points  in  both 
parties  by  means  of  a  stalk  of  grass.  The  blood  from  one  person 
is  put  into  a  pot  of  beer,  and  that  of  the  second  into  another ; 
each  then  drinks  the  other's  blood,  and  they  are  supposed  to  be- 
come perpetual  friends  or  relations."  —  Livingstone's  Africa,  page 
525. 


"  The  chieftainship  is  elective  from  certain  families.  Among 
the  Bangalas  of  the  Cassange  valley  the  chief  is  chosen  from  three 
families  in  rotation.  A  chiefs  brother  inherits  in  preference  to  his 
son.  The  sons  of  a  sister  belong  to  her  brother;  and  he  often 
sells  his  nephews  to  pay  his  debts.  By  this  and  other  unnatural 
customs,  more  than  by  war,  is  the  slave-market  supplied.  The 
prejudices  in  favor  of  these  practices  are  very  deeply  rooted  in 
the  native  mind.  Even  at  Loanda  they  retire  out  of  the  city  in 


140        MISCELLANEOUS  PECULIARITIES,  HABITS,  ETC. 

order  to  perform  their  heathenish  rites  without  the  cognizance  of 
the  authorities.  Their  religion,  if  such  it  may  be  called,  is  one  of 
dread.  Numbers  of  charms  are  employed  to  avert  the  evils  with 
which  they  feel  themselves  to  be  encompassed.  Occasionally  you 
meet  a  man,  more  cautious  or  more  timid  than  the  rest,  with 
twenty  or  thirty  charms  round  his  neck.  He  seems  to  act  upon 
the  principle  of  Proclus,  in  his  prayer  to  all  the  gods  and  god- 
desses ;  among  so  many  he  surely  must  have  the  right  one.  The 
disrespect  which  Europeans  pay  to  the  objects  of  their  fear  is  to 
their  minds  only  an  evidence  of  great  folly."  —  Livingstone's  Africa, 
page  471. 


"  All  the  Batoka  tribes  follow  the  curious  custom  of  knocking 
out  the  upper  front  teeth  at  the  age  of  puberty.  This  is  done  by 
both  sexes ;  and  though  the  under  teeth,  being  relieved  from  the 
attrition  of  the  upper,  grow  long  and  somewhat  bent  out,  and 
thereby  cause  the  under  lip  to  protrude  in  a  most  unsightly  way, 
no  young  woman  thinks  herself  accomplished  until  she  has  got 
rid  of  the  upper  incisors.  This  custom  gives  all  the  Batoka  an 
uncouth,  old- man-like  appearance.  Their  laugh  is  hideous;  yet 
they  are  so  attached  to  it  than  even  Sebituane  was  unable  to  eradi- 
cate the  practice.  He  issued  orders  that  none  of  the  children 
living  under  him  should  be  subjected  to  the  custom  by  their 
parents,  and  disobedience  to  his  mandates  was  usually  punished 
with  severity ;  but,  notwithstanding  this,  the  children  would  ap- 
pear in  the  streets  without  their  incisors,  and  no  one  would  con- 
fess to  the  deed.  When  questioned  respecting  the  origin  of  this 
practice,  the  Batoka  reply  that  their  object  is  to  be  like  oxen,  and 
those  who  retain  their  teeth  they  consider  to  resemble  zebras. 
Whether  this  is  the  true  reason  or  not,  it  is  difficult  to  say ;  but  it 
is  noticeable  that  the  veneration  for  oxen  which  prevails  in  many 
tribes  should  here  be  associated  with  hatred  to  the  zebra,  as  among 
the  Bakwains ;  that  this  operation  is  performed  at  the  same  age 
that  circumcision  is  in  other  tribes ;  and  that  here  that  ceremony 
is  unknown.  The  custom  is  so  universal  that  a  person  who  has 
his  teeth  is  considered  ugly,  and  occasionally,  when  the  Batoka 
borrowed  my  looking-glass,  the  disparaging  remark  would  be 
made  respecting  boys  or  girls  who  still  retained  their  teeth,  4  Look 
at  the  great  teeth ! '  Some  of  the  Makololo  give  a  more  facetious 


MISCELLANEOUS  PECULIARITIES,   HABITS,  ETC.         141 

explanation  of  the  custom :  they  say  that  the  wife  of  a  chief  hav- 
ing in  a  quarrel  bitten  her  husband's  hand,  he,  in  revenge,  ordered 
her  front  teeth  to  be  knocked  out,  and  all  the  men  in  the  tribe  fol- 
lowed his  example ;  but  this  does  not  explain  why  they  afterward 
knocked  out  their  own."  —  Livingstone's  Africa,  page  571. 


"  I  have  already  noticed  some  peculiar  customs  of  the  Marghi ; 
but  I  must  say  a  few  words  about  their  curious  ordeal  on  the  holy 
granite  rock  of  Kobshi.  When  two  are  litigating  about  a  matter, 
each  of  them  takes  a  cock  which  he  thinks  the  best  for  fighting, 
and  they  go  together  to  Kobshi.  Having  arrived  at  the  holy  rock, 
they  set  their  birds  a-fighting,  and  he  whose  cock  prevails  in  the 
combat  is  also  the  winner  in  the  point  of  litigation.  But  more  than 
that,  the  master  of  the  defeated  cock  is  punished  by  the  divinity 
whose  anger  he  has  thus  provoked,  and  on  returning  to  his  village 
he  finds  his  hut  in  flames."  —  BzrtK's  Africa,  Vol.  II. ,  page 
216. 


"  All  over  Bornu  no  butter  is  prepared  except  with  the  dirty 
and  disgusting  addition  of  some  cow's  urine,  and  it  is  always  in  a 
fluid  state." — BarMs  Africa,  Vol.  I.. page  580. 


"  There  are  no  ceremonies  on  birth  occasions,  and  no  purifica- 
tion of  women  among  these  people.  When  the  mother  perishes 
in  childbirth,  the  parents  claim  a  certain  sum  from  '  the  man  that 
killed  their  daughter.'  Twins,  here  called  wapacha,  are  usually 
sold,  or  exposed  in  the  jungle,  as  among  the  Ibos  of  West  Africa. 
If  the  child  die,  an  animal  is  killed  for  a  general  feast,  and  in 
some  tribes  the  mother  does  a  kind  of  penance.  Seated  outside 
the  village,  she  is  smeared  with  fat  and  flour,  and  exposed  to  the 
derision  of  people  who  surround  her,  hooting  and  mocking  with 
offensive  jests  and  gestures.  To  guard  against  this  calamity,  the 
Wazaramo  and  other  tribes  are  in  the  habit  of  vowing  that  the 
babe  shall  not  be  shaved  till  manhood,  and  the  mother  wears  a 
number  of  talismans  —  bits  of  wood  tied  with  a  thong  of  snake's 
skin  —  round  her  neck,  and  beads  of  different  shapes  round  her 
head."  —  Burtoris  Africa,  page  93. 
12* 


142        MISCELLANEOUS  PECULIARITIES,  HABITS,   ETC. 

"  When  meat  is  not  attainable  and  good  water  is  scarce,  the 
African  severs  one  of  the  jugulars  of  a  bullock  and  fastens  upon  it 
like  a  leech.  This  custom  is  common  in  Karagvvah  and  the  other 
northern  kingdoms;  and  some  tribes,  like  the  Wamjika,  near 
Moinbasah,  chum  the  blood  with  milk."  —  Burton's  Afnca, 
page  463 


"  All  the  thoughts  of  the  negroids  are  connected  with  this  life. 
'  Ah ! '  they  exclaim,  '  it  is  bad  to  die !  to  leave  off  eating  and 
drinking,  never  to  wear  a  fine  cloth ! '  As  in  the  negro  race  gen- 
erally, their  destructiveness  is  prominent ;  a  slave  never  breaks  a 
thing  without  an  instinctive  laugh  of  pleasure  ;  and,  however  care- 
ful he  may  be  of  his  own  life,  he  does  not  value  that  of  another, 
even  of  a  relative,  at  the  price  of  a  goat.  During  fires  in  the  town 
of  Zanzibar,  the  blacks  have  been  seen  adding  fuel,  and  singing 
and  dancing,  wild  with  delight.  On  such  occasions  they  are  shot 
down  by  the  Arabs  like  dogs."  — Burton's  Africa,  page  493. 


"  In  the  absence  of  all  refined  pleasures,  various  rude  sports  are 
pursued  with  eagerness,  and  almost  with  fury.  The  most  favor- 
ite is  wrestling,  which  the  chiefs  do  not  practise  in  person,  but 
train  their  slaves  to  exhibit  in  it  as  our  jockeys  do  game-cocks, 
taking  the  same  pride  in  their  prowess  and  victory.  Death  or 
maiming,  however,  is  no  unfrequent  result  of  these  encounters. 
The  ladies,  even  of  rank,  engage  in  another  very  odd  species  of 
contest.  Placing  themselves  back  to  back,  they  cause  particular 
parts  to  strike  together  with  the  most  violent  collision,  when  she 
who  maintains  her  equilibrium,  while  the  other  lies  stretched,  is 
proclaimed  victor  with  loud  cheers."  —  Murray's  African  Discover- 
ies, page  145. 


"After  the  heat  of  the  day  was  over,  Yano,  Chief  of  Kiama, 
came,  attended  by  all  his  train.  The  most  extraordinary  persons 
in  it  were  himself  and  the  bearers  of  his  spears,  which,  as  before, 
were  six  naked  young  girls,  from  fifteen  to  seventeen  years  of  age. 
The  only  thing  they  wore  was  a  fillet  of  white  cloth  round  the 
forehead,  about  six  inches  of  the  ends  flying  behind,  and  a  string 


MISCELLANEOUS  PECULIARITIES,  HABITS,  ETC.          143 

of  beads  round  their  waists ;  in  their  right  hands  they  carried  three 
light  speai's  each.  Their  light  form,  the  vivacity  of  their  eyes, 
and  the  ease  with  which  they  appeared  to  fly  over  the  ground, 
made  them  appear  something  more  than  mortal  as  they  flew  along- 
side of  his  house,  when  he  was  galloping  and  making  his  horse 
curvet  and  bound.  A  man  with  an  immense  bundle  of  spears  re- 
mained behind  at  a  little  distance,  apparently  to  serve  as  a  maga- 
zine for  the  girls  to  be  supplied  from  when  their  master  had  ex- 
pended those  they  carried  in  their  hands."  —  Clappertori's  Africa, 
Vol.  IV.,  page  214. 


"  At  that  moment  one  of  their  lucky  omens  took  place.  My 
servant,  who  had  assisted  in  bringing  the  presents,  got  up  to  re- 
ceive the  Goora  nuts  presented  to  me  by  the  governor's  orders ; 
and  in  rising  he  overturned  a  pot  of  honey  which  had  also  been 
given  to  us,  but  without  breaking  it,  the  honey  running  out  on 
the  floor.  Had  the  pot  been  broken,  the  omen  would  have  been 
unfortunate.  As  it  was,  the  governor  was  highly  elated,  and 
graciously  ordered  the  poor  to  be  called  in  to  lick  up  the  honey. 
They  immediately  made  their  appeai'ance,  equally  rejoiced  at  the 
lucky  omen ;  and,  upon  their  knees,  quickly  despatched  the  honey, 
not,  however,  without  much  strife  and  squabbling.  One  man 
came  off  with  a  double  allowance,  happening  to  have  a  long 
beard,  which  he  carefully  cleaned  into  his  hand  fora  bonne  bouche, 
after  the  repast  on  the  ground  was  finished."  — Clappei-tori's  Africa, 
Vol.  III.,  page  242. 


"  The  ceremony  of  prostration  before  the  king  is  required  from 
all.  The  chiefs  who  come  to  pay  their  court,  cover  themselves 
with  dust,  and  then  fall  flat  on  their  bellies,  having  first  practised 
the  ceremony,  in  order  to  be  perfect." —  Clappertori's  Africa,  Vol. 
IV.,  page  208. 


"  The  Bomonese  have  twenty  cuts  or  lines  on  each  side  of  the 
face,  which  are  drawn  from  the  corners  of  the  mouth  toward  the 
angles  of  the  lower  jaw  and  the  cheek-bone ;  and  it  is  quite  dis- 
tressing to  witness  the  torture  the  poor  little  children  undergo  who 


144         MISCELLANEOUS  PECULIARITIES,  HABITS,   ETC. 

are  thus  marked,  enduring  not  only  the  heat,  but  the  attacks  o 
millions  of  flies.  They  have  also  one  cut  on  the  forehead  in  the 
centre,  six  on  each  arm,  six  on  each  leg  and  thigh,  four  on  each 
breast,  and  nine  on  each  side,  just  above  the  hips.  They  are, 
however,  the  most  humble  of  females,  never  approaching  their 
husbands  except  on  their  knees."  —  Denham  and  Clappertoii'a 
Africa,  Vol.  III.,  page  175. 


"  His  Highness  vouchsafed  this  day  to  sleep  in  my  tent,  and  yes- 
terday he  did  the  Germans  the  honor  of  slaughtering  lice  in  theirs. 
It  is  a  grand  piece  of  etiquette  in  this  country,  that  every  man  has 
the  privilege  of  murdering  his  .own  lice.  If  you  pick  a  louse  off  a 
man's  slave,  you  must  deliver  it  up  instantly  to  him  to  be  mur- 
dered, as  his  undoubted  right  and  privilege." — Richardson's  Af- 
rica, Vol.  II.,  page  89. 


"  Before  they  sit  down  to  eat  meat  in  company,  the  Kaffirs  are 
very  careful  to  immerse  their  hands  in  fresh  cow-dnng,  wiping 
them  on  the  grass,  which  is  considered  the  perfection  of  cleanli- 
ness. Except  an  occasional  plunge  in  a  river,  they  never  wash 
ithemselves,  and  consequently  their  bodies  are  covered  with  ver- 
inin." — Steedmari's  Africa,  Vol.  I.,  page  265. 


"  It  is  very  common  among  the  Hottentots  to  catch  a  serpent, 
squeeze  out  the  poison  from  under  his  teeth,  and  drink  it.  They 
say  it  only  makes  them  a  little  giddy ;  and  they  imagine  it  pre- 
serves them  afterwards  from  receiving  any  injury  from  the  sting 
of  that  reptile."  —  Campbett^s  Africa,  page  401. 


"  As  for  the  people  of  Namacqua,  when  their  sons  are  declared 
to  be  men,  they  erect  a  shade,  kill  an  animal,  and  tie  its  fat  on  his 
head  and  round  his  neck,  which,  according  to  custom,  he  must 
wear  till  it  gradually  rots  and  falls  off.  They  likewise  cut  several 
strokes  on  his  breast  with  a  sharp  instrument.  The  entrails  of  the 
animal  which  was  killed  at  the  commencement  of  the  ceremony, 
being  dried  and  pounded  into  a  powder,  are  now  mixed  wtih 


MISCELLANEOUS  PECULIARITIES,  HABITS,   ETC.         145 

water,  with  which  he  is  rubbed  all  over,  and  he  is  then  declared 
to  be  a  man  ki  the  presence  of  the  whole  kraal.  He  who  does 
not  submit  to  this  ceremony  eats  only  with  women,  and  is  de- 
spised."—  Campbell's  Africa,  page  430. 


"  A  curious  custom,  originating  in  the  superstitious  belief  of  the 
people  of  the  Gold  Coast,  prevails  among  them,  in  reference  to  a 
girl  after  conception.  As  soon  as  it  becomes  generally  apparent 
that  she  is  with  child,  her  friends  and  neighbors  set  upon  her, 
and  drive  her  to  the  sea,  pelting  her  with  mud  and  covering  her 
with  dust.  During  this  operation  they  abuse  her  vehemently; 
and  conclude  the  ceremony  by  tumbling  her  over  among  the 
waves.  She  returns  unmolested  to  her  house ;  and  the  fetich- 
woman  binds  charms  of  strings  and  parrots'  feathers  about  her 
wrists,  ankles,  and  neck,  muttering  a  dark  spell  all  the  while,  to 
keep  away  bad  luck  and  evil  spirits.  Without  passing  through 
this  ordeal,  they  believe  that  her  childbirth  would  be  unfortu- 
nate." — CruickshanK's  Africa,  Vol.  II.,  page  200. 


"The  Africans  pay  no  attention  either  to  domestic  or  wild  ani- 
mals ;  even  the  dog  or  horse,  the  two  most  sagacious  of  all  the 
animal  creation,  excite  in  them  no  interest  whatever.  If  not 
driven  to  it,  they  will  suffer  a  horse  to  stand  for  days,  tied  up 
without  food  or  water.  In  fact,  in  no  case  do  they  exhibit  any 
feeling,  either  of  regard  or  affection,  to  merit  even  a  comparison 
with  any  of  the  lower  animals,  being  also  selfish  in  the  extreme." 
—  Duncan's  Africa,  Vol.  I.,  page  90. 


"  His  prime  minister  and  four  others  next  in  rank,  who  were 
conducting  me  to  his  majesty's  presence,  desired  me  to  halt  till 
they  paid  their  compliment  to  his  majesty,  forming  line  in  front 
of  me.  They  completely  prostrated  themselves  at  full  length, 
rubbing  both  sides  of  their  faces  on  the  ground  and  kissing  it. 
They  then  raised  themselves  on  their  knees,  where  they  remained 
till  they  had  completely  covered  themselves  with  dust,  and 
rubbed  their  arms  over  with  dirt  as  high  as  the  shoulders."— 
Duncan's  Africa,  Vol.  I.,  page  220. 
13 


146        MISCELLANEOUS  PECULIARITIES,   HABITS,   ETC. 

"Much  neglect  seems  to  prevail  at  the  time  of  the  birth  of 
male  children,  respecting  the  separation  of  the  umbilical  cord. 
Many  boys,  and  even  men,  may  be  seen  with  protruding  navels 
as  large  as  a  duck's  egg."  —  Duncan's  Africa,  Vol.  I.,  page  80. 


"Very  little  systematic  control  is  exercised  by  either  parent ; 
and  the  children  are,  for  the  most  part,  utterly  disobedient  and 
reckless  of  parental  authority.  As  they  are  taught  in  their 
earliest  infancy  to  steal  and  lie,  and  to  indulge  in  other  gross 
vices,  nothing  better  could  be  expected.  One  most  cruel  punish- 
ment inflicted  upon  their  children,  when  they  can  no  longer  bear 
with  them,  is  to  rub  red  pepper  in  their  eyes." — Scotfs  Day 
Dawn  in  Africa,  page  49. 


"  The  Obbo  natives  are  similar  to  the  Bari  in  some  of  their 
habits.  I  have  had  great  difficulty  in  breaking  my  cow-keeper  of 
his  disgusting  custom  of  washing  the  milk-bowl  with  cow's  urine, 
and  even  mixing  some  with  the  milk ;  he  declares  that,  unless  he 
washes  his  hands  with  such  water  before  milking,  the  cow  will 
lose  her  milk." — Baker's  Great  Basin  of  the  Nile,  page  258. 


"  The  entire  crowd  were  most  grotesquely  gotten  up,  being 
dressed  in  either  leopard  or  white  monkey  skins,  with  cows'  tails 
strapped  on  behind,  and  antelopes'  horns  fitted  upon  their  heads, 
while  their  chins  were  ornamented  with  false  beards,  made  of  the 
bushy  ends  of  cows'  tails  sewed  together.  Altogether,  I  never 
saw  a  more  unearthly  set  of  creatures ;  they  were  perfect  illustra- 
tions of  my  childish  ideas  of  devils,  —  horns,  tails,  and  all,  ex- 
cepting the  hoofs ;  they  were  our  escort !  furnished  by  King 
Kamrasi  to  accompany  us  to  the  lake."  —  Baker's  Great  Basin  of 
the  Nile,  page  321. 


"  The  women  continue  to  perform  the  severest  labors  until  the 
very  last  moment  of  their  time.  They  give  birth  to  children  with- 
out uttering  a  complaint,  and  one  would  almost  believe  that  they 


MISCELLANEOUS  PECULIARITIES,   HABITS,   ETC.         147 

are  delivered  without  pain,  for  on  the  following  day  they  resume 
their  usual  occupations." —  Caillie's  Africa,  Vol.  2.,  page  351. 


"  The  women  of  Bambara,  who  were  exceedingly  dirty,  have 
all  a  bit  of  calabash,  or  a  thin  slip  of  wood,  stuck  into  the  under 
lip.  I  could  scarcely  persuade  myself  that  this  was  a  mere  matter 
of  taste,  and  questioned  my  guide  upon  the  subject ;  he  assured 
me  that  it  was  the  fashion  of  the  country.  I  was  equally  at  a  loss 
to  conceive  how  this  bit  of  wood,  which  was  merely  stuck  through 
the  lip,  could  keep  its  place.  The  women  allowed  me  to  see  that 
this  curious  ornament  was  brought  through  to  the  inner  part  of 
the  lip,  and  they  laughed  heartily  at  my  astonishment.  I  asked 
one  of  them  to  remove  the  piece  of  wood  from  her  lip ;  but  she 
told  me  that  if  she  did  so  the  saliva  would  run  through  the  hole. 
In  short,  I  was  quite  amazed  that  coquetry  could  induce  them  to 
disfigure  themselves  in  this  manner ;  yet  it  is  the  general  custom 
of  this  country.  I  saw  young  girls  eight  or  ten  years  of  age,  who 
had  in  their  lower  lip  little  pieces  of  wood  of  the  circumference 
of  a  pen-holder  pointed  at  one  end  and  stuck  into  the  flesh.  They 
renew  it  frequently,  and  eveiy  time  use  a  larger  bit  of  wood, 
which  gradually  widens  the  hole,  until  it  becomes  large  enough  to 
admit  a  piece  of  wood  of  the  size  of  a  half-crown  piece.  I  ob- 
served that  this  singular  and  inconvenient  ornament  contributed 
to  their  uncleanliness." —  Caillie's  Africa,  Vol.  L,  page  374. 


"  The  male  Mandingoes  are  circumcised  between  the  age  of 
fifteen  and  twenty.  The  excision  which  females  should  undergo 
when  they  are  marriageable,  is  often  delayed  until  they  are  prom- 
ised in  marriage.  I  even  saw  a  married  woman,  who,  after  having 
a  child,  submitted  to  this  operation.  It  is  always  performed  by 
women,  and  oil  several  patients  at  once,  who  are  thereby  ren- 
dered for  some  time  unable  to  work.  In  this  state  they  are  taken 
care  of  by  their  mothers,  who  bathe  the  wound  several  times  a 
day  with  an  indigenous  caustic,  with  the  use  of  which  they  are 
acquainted."  —  Caillie's  Africa,  Vol.  I.,  page  351. 


In  Guinea,  some  of  the  customs  practised  on  women,  aftei 


148        MISCELLANEOUS   PECULIARITIES,  HABITS,   ETC. 

their  confinement,  are  most  barbarous  and  inhuman.  The  mother 
is  separated  from  her  husband  for  a  period  of  three  years,  that 
she  may  give  undivided  attention  to  her  offspring ;  and,  in  the 
mean  time,  the  husband  supplies  himself  with  another  partner." — 
Valdez's  Africa,  Vol.  I.,  page  218. 


"  Their  dances  are  mere  stoppings  and  turnings,  in  which  there 
is  nothing  graceful,  accompanied  by  the  clapping  of  hands,  and 
various  distortions  and  gestures." —  Valdez's  Africa,  Vol.  //.,  page 
344. 


"  On  our  walk  to  the  house,  we  first  saw  a  woman  of  the  Bos- 
jesman  race,  and  had  ocular  conviction  of  the  truth  of  all  we 
had  previously  heard  respecting  the  uncommon  ugliness  of  these 
people,  particularly  of  the  females.  She  sat  more  than  half-naked, 
at  the  entrance  of  a  miserable  straw  hut,  near  a  fire  of  fresh 
brushwood,  which  exhaled  a  terrible  smoke  and  vapor,  and  was 
occupied  in  skinning  a  lean  hare.  The  greasy  swarthiness  of  her 
skin,  her  clothing  of  animal  hides,  as  well  as  the  savage  wildness 
of  her  looks,  and  the  uncouth  manner  in  which  she  handled  the 
hare,  presented  altogether  a  most  disgusting  spectacle.  She  took 
no  further  notice  of  us  than  now  and  then  to  cast  a  shy  leer  to- 
ward us.1'  —  LicMenstein'ls  Africa,  Vol.  I.,  page  56. 


"  They  generally  eat  their  flesh  raw,  and  chew  it  vei-y  little. 
If  they  dress  it,  they  scarcely  make  it  hot  through,  and  bite  it  with 
their  teeth  the  moment  it  is  taken  out  of  the  ashes.  The  incisive 
teeth,  therefore,  of  the  old  Bosjesmans  are  commonly  half  worn 
away,  and  have  one  general  flat  edge.  They  drink  out  of  the 
rivers  and  streamlets,  lying  down  flat  on  their  bellies,  even  when 
the  bank  is  very  steep,  so  that  they  are  obliged  to  support  them- 
selves in  a  fatiguing  manner  with  their  arms,  to  avoid  falling  into 
the  water."  —  Lichstenteiri' 8  Africa,  Vol.  II.,  page  48. 


"  The  queen,  who  accompanied  her  lord,  and  who  was  de- 
cidedly the  ugliest  woman  I  ever  saw,  and  very  old,  was  called 


MISCELLANEOUS  PECULIARITIES,   HABITS,   ETC.         149 

Mashumba.  She  was  nearly  naked,  her  only  article  of  dress 
being  a  strip  of  the  Fan  cloth,  dyed  red,  and  about  four  inches 
wide.  Her  entire  body  was  tattooed  in  the  most  fanciful  man- 
ner ;  her  skin,  from  long  exposure,  had  become  rough  and  knotty. 
She  wore  two  enormous  iron  anklets,  —  iron  being  a  precious 
metal  with  the  Fans,  —  and  had  in  her  ears  a  pair  of  copper  ear- 
rings two  inches  in  diameter,  and  very  heavy.  These  had  so 
weighed  down  the  lobes  of  her  ears  that  I  could  h'ave  put  my 
little  finger  easily  into  the  holes  through  which  the  rings  were 
run."  —  Du  Chaillu's  Equatorial  Africa,  page  104. 


"  The  men  take  care  to  put  all  the  hardest  work  on  their  wives, 
who  raise  the  crops,  gather  firewood,  bear  all  kinds  of  burdens; 
and,  where  the  bar-wood  trade  is  carried  on,  as  it  is  now  by 
many  Shekiani  villages,  the  men  only  cut  down  the  trees  and 
split  them  into  billets,  which  the  women  are  then  forced  to  bear 
on  their  backs  through  the  forests  and  jungle  down  to  the  river- 
banks,  as  they  have  but  rude  paths,  and  beasts  of  burden  are  un- 
known in  all  this  part  of  Africa.  This  is  the  most  severe  toil 
imaginable,  as  the  loads  have  to  be  carried  often  six  or  seven 
miles  or  more."  —  Du  Chaillu's  Equatorial  Africa,  page  197. 


"It  is  curious  what  a  stirring  effect  the  sound  of  the  tarn-tam 
has  on  the  African.  He  loses  all  control  over  himself  at  its  sound, 
and  the  louder  and  more  energetically  the  horrid  drum  is  beaten, 
the  wilder  are  the  jumps  of  the  male  African,  and  the  more  dis- 
gustingly indecent  the  contortions  of  the  women."  —  Du  Chaillu's 
Equatorial  Africa,  page  236. 


"Many  of  the  Hottentots  wear,  as  ornaments,  the  guts  of 
beasts,  fresh  and  stinking,  drawn  two  or  three  times,  one  through 
another,  about  their  necks,  and  the  like  about  their  legs."  — 
Ogilby^s  Africa,  page  591. 


"The  women  are  so  addicted  to  dancing,  that  they  cannot  for- 
bear upon  the  hearing  of  any  instrument,  though  they  be  laden 
13* 


150         MISCELLANEOUS  PECULIARITIES^   HABITS,   ETC. 

with  one  child  in  the  belly,  and  another  at  the  back,  where  they 
commonly  carry  them."  —  Ogilby's  Africa,  page  466. 


"  The  king  of  Congo  eats  and  drinks  in  secrecy.  If  a  dog  en- 
ters the  house  while  he  is  at  meals,  it  is  killed ;  and  an  instance  is 
recorded  of  the  king's  son  having  accidentally  seen  his  father 
drinking  palm  wine,  and  of  his  being  executed  on  the  spot."  — 
Eeade's  Savage  Africa,  page  286. 


"  When  the  aged  become  too  weak  to  provide  for  themselves, 
and  are  a  burden  to  those  whom  they  brought  forth  and  reared  to 
manhood,  they  are  not  unfrequently  abandoned  by  their  own 
children,  with  a  meal  of  victuals  and  a  cruse  of  water,  to  perish 
in  the  desert;  and  I  have  seen  a  small  circles  of  stakes  fastened 
in  the  ground,  within  which  were  still  lying  the  bones  of  a  parent 
bleached  in  the  sun,  who  had  been  thus  abandoned." — Moffafs 
Africa,  page  97. 


"  When  a  mother  dies,  whose  infant  is  not  able  to  shift  for  it- 
self, it  is,  without  any  ceremony,  buried  alive  with  the  corpse  of 
its  mother."  —  Moffafs  Africa,  page  48. 


"  They  delight  to  besmear  their  bodies  with  the  fat  of  animals, 
mingled  with  ochre,  and  sometimes  with  grinie.  They  are  utter 
strangers  to  cleanliness,  as  they  never  wash  their  bodies,  but 
suffer  the  dirt  to  accumulate,  so  that  it  will  hang  a  considerable 
length  from  their  elbows.  Their  huts  are  formed  by  digging  a 
hole  in  the  earth  about  three  feet  deep,  and  then  making  a  roof 
of  reeds,  which  is  however  insufficient  to  keep  off  the  rains.  Here 
they  lie  close  together  like  pigs  in  a  sty.  They  are  extremely 
lazy,  so  that  nothing  will  rouse  them  to  action  but  excessive 
hunger.  They  will  continue  several  days  together  without  food 
rather  than  be  at  the  pains  of  procuring  it.  When  compelled  to 
sally  forth  for  prey,  they  are  dexterous  at  destroying  the  various 
beasts  which  abound  in  the  country,  and  they  can  run  almost  as 
well  as  a  horse.  They  are  total  strangers  to  domestic  happiness. 


MISCELLANEOUS  PECULIARITIES,   HABITS,  ETC.          151 

The  men  have  several  wives,  but  conjugal  affection  is  little 
known.  They  take  no  great  care  of  their  children,  and  never 
correct  them,  except  in  a  fit  of  rage,  when  they  almost  kill  them 
by  severe  usage.  In  a  quarrel  between  father  and  mother,  or  the 
sevei-al  wives  of  a  husband,  the  defeated  party  wreaks  his  or  her 
vengeance  on  the  ehild  of  the  conqueror,  which  in  general  loses 
its  life."  —  Kicherer,  quoted  in  Moffafs  Africa,  page  49. 


"The  women  of  Pongo  disfigure  their  faces  veiy  much  by 
making  large  holes  in  their  ears,  and  through  the  cartilaginous 
parts  of  the  nose.  Weights  are  attached  to  make  the  hole  large 
enough  to  pass  the  finger  through.  Pieces  of  fat  meat  are  fre- 
quently worn  in  these  holes,  but  whether  for  ornament  or  fra- 
grance is  not  known.  I  inquired  of  one  of  them  once  why  she  did 
it,  and  received  the  laconic  answer,  'My  husband  likes  it.'"  — 
Wilson's  Africa,  page  288. 

"  The  person  of  the  King  of  Loango  is  sacred,  and  he  is,  in 
consequence,  subjected  to  some  very  singular  rules,  especially  in 
connection  with  his  eating  and  drinking.  There  is  one  of  his 
houses  in  which  alone  he  can  eat,  and  another  where  alone  he  can 
drink.  When  the  covered  dishes  which  contain  his  food  are  car- 
ried into  the  eating-house,  a  crier  proclaims  it,  and  everybody  gets 
out  of  the  way  as  quick  as  possible.  The  doors  are  then  carefully 
closed  and  bolted,  and  any  person  that  should  see  the  king  in  the 
act  of  eating  would  be  put  to  death.  Proyait  mentions  the  fact 
that  a  favorite  dog  was  immediately  put  to  death  for  looking  up 
into  his  master's  face  while  eating.  Another  is  mentioned  of  a 
child  that  was  accidentally  left  in  the  banqueting-room  of  the  king 
by  his  father,  and  who  awoke  and  accidentally  saw  the  king  eat- 
ing. It  was  spared  five  or  six  days,  at  the  earnest  request  of  its 
father,  but  was  then  put  to  death,  and  its  blood  sprinkled  upon  the 
king's  fetich.  Others  might  be  present  when  the  king  drank,  but 
they  were  bound  to  conceal  their  faces.  In  like  manner  no  one  is 
allowed  to  drink  in  the  king's  presence  without  turning  their 
backs  to  him."  —  Wilson's  Africa,  page  309. 

"The  King  of  Dahorni  is  one  of  the  most  absolute  tyrants  in 


152          HUTS,  HOVELS,  AND  HOLES  IN  NEGROLAND. 

the  world ;  and,  being  regarded  as  a  demi-god  by  his  own  sub- 
jects, his  actions  are  never  questioned.  No  person  ever  ap- 
proaches him, — even  his  favorite  chiefs,  —  without  prostrating 
themselves  at  full  length  on  the  ground,  and  covering  their  faces 
and  heads  with  earth.  It  is  a  grave  offence  to  suppose  that  the 
king  eats,  drinks,  sleeps,  or  performs  any  of  the  ordinaiy  func- 
tions of  nature.  His  meals  are  always  taken  to  a  secret  place,  and 
any  man  that  has  the  misfortune  or  the  temerity  to  cast  his  eyes 
upon  him  in  the  act  is  put  to  death.  If  the  king  drinks  in  public, 
which  is  done  on  some  extraordinary  occasions,  his  person  is  con- 
cealed by  having  a  curtain  held  up  before  him,  during  which 
time  the  people  prostrate  themselves,  and  afterward  shout  and 
cheer  at  the  very  top  of  their  voices."  —  Wilson's  Africa,  page  202. 


CHAPTER    XXVII. 

HUTS,   HOVELS,   AND  HOLES  (BUT  NO  HOUSES)  IN  NEGROLAND. 

"IT  is  impossible  to  look  at  some  of  their  domiciles  without  the 
inquiry  involuntarily  rising  in  the  mind,  Are  these  the  abodes  of 
human  beings  ?  In  a  bushy  country,  they  will  form  a  hollow  in  a 
central  position,  and  bring  the  branches  together  over  the  head. 
Here  the  man,  his  wife,  and  probably  a  child  or  two,  lie  huddled 
in  a  heap,  on  a  little  grass,  in  a  hollow  spot  not  larger  than  an  os- 
trich's nest.  Where  bushes  are  scarce,  they  form  a  hollow  under 
the  edge  of  a  rock,  covering  it  partially  with  reeds  or  grass,  and 
they  are  often  to  be  found  in  fissures  and  cav*w  of  the  mountains. 
When  they  have  abundance  of  meat,  they  do  nothing  but  gorge 
and  sleep,  dance  and  sing,  till  their  stock  is  exhausted.  But  hun- 
ger, that  imperious  master,  soon  drives  him  to  the  chase.  It  is 
astonishing  to  what  a  distance- they  will  run  in  pursuit  of  the  ani- 
mal which  has  received  the  fatal  arrow.  I  have  seen  them,  on  the 
successful  return  of  a  hunting  party,  the  merriest  of  the  merry, 
exhibiting  bursts  of  enthusiastic  joy ;  while  their  momentary  hap- 


HUTS,  HOVELS,  AND  HOLES  IN  NEGROLAND,          153 

piuess,  contrasted  with  their  real  condition,  produced  on  my  mind 
the  deepest  sorrow."  —  Moffafs  Africa,  page  48. 


"It  is  a  curious  fact  that  the  circular  form  of  hut  is  the  only 
style  of  architecture  adopted  among  all  the  tribes  of  Central  Af- 
rica ;  and  that,  although  these  differ  more  or  less  in  the  form  of 
the  roof,  no  tribe  has  ever  yet  sufficiently  advanced  to  construct  a 
window."  —  Baker's  Great  Basin  of  the  Nile,  page  141. 


"  Their  sheep,  goats,  and  poultry  eat  and  sleep  in  the  same  hut 
with  them,  and  a  most  intolerable  stench  is  exhaled  from  all  their 
dwellings.  They  do  not  appear  to  have  the  least  affection  for 
their  offspring :  a  parent  will  sell  his  child  for  the  merest  trifle  in 
the  world,  with  no  more  remorse  or  repugnance  than  he  would  a 
chicken."  —  Lander's  Africa,  page  348. 


"These  huts  are  erected  so  close  to  each  other,  and  with  so 
little  regard  to  comfort  and  a  free  circulation  of  air,  that  there  is 
scarcely  a  foot-path  in  the  town  wide  enough  for  more  than  one  to 
walk  on  at  a  time  ;  and,  not  having  the  advantage  of  shady  trees, 
the  heat  of  the  town  is  excessive  and  distressing.  Its  uncleanness, 
filth,  and  extreme  nastiness  have  already  been  alluded  to ;  and  the 
odor  emitted  from  the  dirty  streets  is  offensive  and  almost  insup- 
portable."—  Lander's  Travels  in  Africa,  Vol.  II.,  page  45. 


"  Their  houses  somewhat  resemble  a  beehive  or  ant-hill,  con- 
sisting of  boughs  of  trees  stuck  into  the  ground  in  a  circular 
form,  and  lashed  down  across  one  another  overhead  so  as  to  form 
a  framework,  on  which  they  spread  large  mats  formed  of  reeds. 
These  mats  are  also  used  instead  of  cloth,  and  are  very  effectual 
in  resisting  both  sun  and  rain.  The  diameter  of  these  dome-shaped 
huts  varies  from  ten  to  fifteen  feet."  —  Gumming 's  Africa,  Vol.  /., 
page  127. 


:  In  the  construction  of  their  dwelling-houses  the  Mandingoes 


154          HUTS,   H07ELS,  AND  SOLES  IN  NEGROLAND. 

also  conform  to  the  general  practice  of  the  African  nations  on  this 
pait  of  the  continent,  contenting  themselves  with  small  and  in- 
commodious hovels.  A  circular  mud  wall,  about  four  feet  high, 
upon  which  is  placed  a  conical  roof,  composed  of  the  bamboo  cane, 
and  thatched  with  grass,  forms  alike  the  palace  of  the  king  and 
the  hovel  of  the  slave.  Their  household  furniture  is  equally  sim- 
ple. A  hurdle  of  canes  placed  upon  upright  stakes,  about  two 
feet  from  the  ground,  upon  which  is  spread  a  mat  or  bullock's 
hide,  answers  the  purpose  of  a  bed.  A  water-jar,  some  earthen 
pots  for  dressing  their  food,  a  few  wooden  bowls  and  calabashes, 
and  one  or  two  low  stools,  compose  the  rest."  —  Mungo  Park's  1st 
Journal,  page  31. 


"  Houses  are  jotted  down  without  any  regard  to  the  evenness 
or  regularity  of  the  ground  on  which  they  are  erected.  The  hig- 
gledy-piggledy order  of  architecture  prevails  throughout ;  and  the 
axiom  of  Bacon  that  '  a  house  was  meant  to  live  in,'  is  carried 
out  in  its  most  original  simplicity  in  Old  Kalabar.  As  I  walk 
through  the  passages  intended  for  streets,  I  have  to  scramble  over 
eminences  and  down  declivities  in  the  best  way  I  can.  In  a  path- 
way between  two  houses  opposite  each  other,  or  perhaps  side  by 
side,  there  may  be  an  ascent  or  a  descent  of  a  dozen  or  score  of 
feet ;  and  in  wet  weather  it  is  impossible  to  escape  a  foot-bath  in 
some  of  the  many  ruts  to  be  met  with  as  one  goes  along.  Heaps 
of  dirt  and  all  kinds  of  refuse  are  thrown  indiscriminately  through 
the  town,  as  if  to  allow  pasture-ground  for  the  many  turkey-buz- 
zards, styled  by  Swainson,  the  '  scavengers  of  nature,'  that  con- 
gregate  upon  them,  and  have  a  perpetual  carnival  in  browsing 
upon  the  festering  offal."  —  Hutchinson's  Western  Africa,  page  116. 


"Their  buildings  generally  resemble  the  humbler  sort  of  Eng- 
lish cow-house,  or  an  Anglo-Indian  bungalow."  — Burton's  Africa, 
page  90. 


"  Beyond  the  line  of  maritime  land  the  dwelling-house  assumes 
the  normal  African  form,  the  circular  hut  described  by  every  trav- 
eller in  the  interior.  Dr.  Livingstone  appears  to  judge  rightly 


HUTS,  HOVELS,  AND  HOLES  IN  NEGROLAND.          155 

that  its  circularity  is  the  result  of  a  barbarous  deficiency  in  invent- 
iveness.'1—  Burton's  Africa,  page  251. 


"The  inner  side  of  the  roof  is  polished  to  a  shiny  black  with 
smoke,  which  winds  its  way  slowly  through  the  door.  Smoke 
and  grease  are  the  African's  coat  and  small  clothes ;  they  contrib- 
bute  so  much  to  his  health  and  comfort  that  he  is  by  no  means 
anxious  to  get  rid  of  them,  and  sooty  lines  depend  from  it  like 
negro-stalactites." —  Burton's  Africa,  page  253. 


"  The  settlements  of  the  Wak'hutu  are  composed  of  a  few 
straggling  hovels  of  the  humblest  description,  with  doors  little 
higher  than  an  English  pigsty,  and  eaves  so  low  that  a  man  can- 
not enter  them  except  on  all-fours.  In  shape  they  differ,  some 
being  simple  cones,  others  like  European  haystacks,  and  others 
like  our  old  straw  beehives."  —  Burton's  Africa,  page  97. 


"  All  the  accommodations  of  life  throughout  this  continent  are 
simple,  and  limited  in  the  greatest  degree.  There  does  not,  prob- 
ably, without  some  foreign  interposition,  exist  in  Africa  a  stone 
house,  or  one  which  rises  two  stories  from  the  ground.  The  ma- 
terial of  the  very  best  habitations  are  merely  stakes  of  wood 
plastered  with  earth,  built  in  a  conical  form  like  beehives,  and 
resembling  the  first  rude  shelter  which  man  framed  against  the 
elements."  — Murray^s  African  Discoveries,  page  231. 


"  Except  the  state  chairs  or  thrones  of  the  great  monarchs, 
ascended  only  on  very  solemn  occasions,  there  is  not  throughout 
native  Africa  a  seat  to  sit  upon.  The  people  squat  on  the  ground 
in  circles,  and  if  the  chief  can  place  beneath  him  the  skin  of  a  lion 
or  leopard,  he  is  at  the  height  of  his  pomp.  For  a  table  there  is 
at  best  a  wooden  board,  whereon  is  neither  plate,  knife,  fork,  nor 
spoon  ;  the  fingers  being  supposed  fully  adequate  to  the  perform- 
ance of  every  function."  —  Murray's  African  Discoveries,  page  233. 


158  HUTS,   HOVELS,   AND  HOLES  IN  NEGROLAND. 

"  Their  appearance  indicated  wretchedness  in  the  extreme,  and 
they  seemed  to  behold  us  with  astonishment.  Their  dwellings 
were  so  low  as  to  be  hardly  visible  among  the  bushes  till  quite 
close  to  them.  They  were  the  shape  of  the  half  of  a  hen's  egg, 
with  the  open  part  exposed  to  the  weather,  which  must  be  ex- 
tremely inconvenient  in  the  rainy  season,  unless  they  are  able  to 
turn  the  inclosed  side  to  the  storm,  which  might  easily  be  done. 
.  .  .  The  inhabitants  were  so  covered  with  dirt,  mixed  with 
spots  of  very  red  paint,  that  it  appeared  probable  none  of  them 
had  had  any  part  of  their  bodies  washed  since  they  were  born." 
—  Campbell's  Africa,  page  316. 


"  Throughout  the  whole  country  the  huts  are  small,  ill-con- 
structed, and  extremely  filthy ;  the  door  is  so  low  that  to  enter 
you  are  obliged  to  crawl  on  all-fours.  The  residence  of  each  fam- 
ily is  composed  of  several  huts  surrounded  by  quick  hedges, 
planted  at  random  and  without  taste.  Sometimes  this  inclosure  is 
formed  merely  of  posts  and  rails,  or  a  kind  of  palisade  of  straw. 
The  streets  are  extremely  narrow,  winding,  and  dirty,  all  sorts  of 
filth  being  thrown  into  them.  Both  men  and  women  are  very  un- 
cleanly, as  in  all  the  negro  villages  in  this  country,  and  they  rub 
a  great  quantity  of  butter  upon  their  heads."  — Caillies  Africa,  Vol. 
I. ,  page  24. 


"  The  village  was  a  new  one,  and  consisted  mostly  of  a  single 
street  about  eight  hundred  yards  long,  on  which  were  built  the 
houses.  The  latter  were  small,  being  only  eight  or  ten  feet  long, 
five  or  six  wide,  and  four  or  five  in  height,  with  slanting  roofs. 
They  were  made  of  bark,  and  the  roofs  were  of  a  kind  of  matting 
made  of  the  leaves  of  a  palm-tree.  The  doors  run  up  to  the  eaves, 
about  four  feet  high,  and  there  were  no  windows.  In  these  houses 
they  cook,  eat,  sleep,  and  keep  their  store  of  provisions,  chief  of 
which  is  the  smoked  game  and  smoked  human  flesh,  hung  up  to 
the  rafters."  —  Du  Chaillifs  Equatorial  Africa,  page  105. 


"  The  palaver-house  is  an  open  shed,  which  answers  the  pur- 
pose of  a  public-house,  club-room,  or  town-hall,  to  these  people ; 


HUTS,  HOVELS)  AND  HOLES  IN  NEGROLAND.  157 

they  meet  there  daily,  to  smoke  and  gossip,  hold  public  trials  or 
palavers,  and  receive  strangers."  —  Du  Chaillu's  Ashango-Land, 
page  264.  •  • 


"  The  best  sort  of  Makololo  huts  consist  of  three  circular  walls, 
with  small  holes  as  doors,  each  similar  to  that  in  a  dog-house ; 
and  it  is  necessary  to  bend  down  the  body  to  get  in,  even  when  on 
all-fours.  The  roof  is  formed  of  reeds  or  straight  sticks,  in  shape 
like  a  Chinaman's  hat,  bound  firmly  together  with  circular  bands, 
which  are  lashed  with  the  strong  inner  bark  of  the  mimosa-tree. 
When  all  prepared  except  the  thatch,  it  is  lifted  on  to  the  circular 
wall,  the  rim  resting  on  a  circle  of  poles,  between  each  of  which 
the  third  wall  is  built.  The  roof  is  thatched  with  fine  grass,  and 
sewed  with  the  same  material  as  the  lashings ;  and,  as  it  projects 
far  beyond  the  walls,  and  reaches  within  four  feet  of  the  ground, 
the  shade  is  the  best  to  be  found  in  the  country.  These  huts  are 
very  cool  in  the  hottest  day,  but  are  close  and  deficient  in  ventila- 
tion by  night."  — Livingstone's  Africa,  page  225. 


"  The  Bosjesman  has  no  settled  residence ;  his  whole  life  is 
passed  in  wandering  from  place  to  place  ;  it  even  rarely  happens 
that  he  passes  two  nights  together  on  the  same  spot.  One  excep- 
tion may,  however,  be  found  to  this  general  rule,  and  that  is, 
when  he  has  eaten  till  he  is  perfectly  gorged ;  that  is  to  say,  when 
he  has  for  several  days  together  had  as  much  as  his  almost  incred- 
ible voracity  can  possibly  eat.  Such  a  revelry  is  followed  by  a 
sleep,  or  at  least  a  fit  of  indolence,  which  will  continue  even  for 
weeks,  and  which  at  last  becomes  so  delightful  to  him,  that  he 
had  rather  buckle  the  girdle  of  emptiness  round  him,  than  submit 
to  such  an  exertion  as  going  to  the  chase,  or  catching  insects.  He 
is  fond  of  taking  up  his  abode  for  the  night  in  caverns  among  the 
mountains,  or  clefts  in  the  rocks ;  in  the  plain  he  makes  himself 
a  hole  in  the  ground,  or  gets  into  the  midst  of  a  bush,  where,  bend- 
ing the  boughs  around  him,  they  are  made  to  serve  as  a  shelter 
against  the  weather,  against  an  enemy,  or  against  wild  beasts.  A 
bush  that  has  served  many  times  in  this  way  as  the  retreat  of  a 
Bosjesman,  and  the  points  of  whose  bent  boughs  are  beginning  to 
grow  again  upwards,  has  perfectly  the  appearance  of  an  immense 
14 


158          PROBABLE  EXTINCTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  RACE. 

bird's  nest.  la  this  state  many  sorts  of  the  pliant  tarconanthus, 
abundance  of  which  grows  on  the  other  side  of  the  Great  River,  are 
often  to  be  found;  and  if  they  have  been  recently  inhabited,  hay, 
leaves,  and  wool  may  be  seen,  forming  the  bottom  of  the  nest.  It 
is  the  custom  which  has  given  rise  to  the  name  by  which  the  sav- 
ages in  question  are  now  known.  Bosje  signifying,  in  African 
Dutch,  a  shrub  or  bush ;  Bosjesman,  consequently,  a  bush-man. 
An  additional  reason  for  giving  it  being  derived  from  their  often 
shooting  at  game,  or  at  an  enemy,  from  this  retreat."  —  Liclden- 
steMs  Africa,  Vol.  II.,  page  46. 


"The  holes  in  the  ground  above  mentioned,  which  sometimes 
serve  these  people  as  beds,  are  only  a  few  inches  deep,  of  a  long- 
ish-round  form,  and  even  when  they  are  to  serve  for  a  whole  fam- 
ily, not  more  than  five  or  six  feet  wide.  It  is  incredible  how  they 
manage  to  pack  together  in  so  small  a  space,  — perhaps  two  grown 
persons  and  several  children ;  each  is  wrapped  in  a  single  sheep- 
skin, in  which  they  contrive  to  roll  themselves  up  in  such  a  man- 
ner, round  like  a  ball,  that  all  air  is  entirely  kept  from  them.  In 
very  cold  nights  they  heap  up  twigs  and  earth  on  the  windward 
side  of  the  whole ;  but  against  rain  they  have  no  other  shelter 
than  the  sheepskin."  —  Lichtensteiri's  Africa,  Vol.  II.,  page  47. 


CHAPTER    XXVIII. 

GRADUAL    DECREASE    AND    PROBABLE  EXTINCTION    OF    THE 
NEGRO  RACE. 

"  I  HAVE  been  struck  with  the  steady  decrease  of  the  population, 
even  during  the  short  time  I  have  been  in  Africa,  on  the  coast 
and  in  the  interior ;  but  before  I  account  for  it,  let  me  raise  my 
voice  in  defence  of  the  white  man,  who  is  accused  as  being  the 
cause  of  it.  Wherever  he  settles,  the  aborigines  are  said  to  disap- 
pear. I  admit  that  such  is  the  case ;  but  the  decrease  of  the  pop- 


PROBABLE  EXTINCTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  RACE.         159 

tilation  had  already  taken  place  before  the  white  man  came ;  the 
white  man  noticed  it,  but  could  not  stop  it.  Populous  tribes 
whom  I  saw  for  a  second  time,  and  who  had  seen  no  white  man 
and  his  fiery  water,  have  decreased,  and  this  decrease  took  place 
before  the  terrible  plague  that  desolated  the  land  had  made  its 
appearance.  The  negroes  themselves  acknowledge  the  decrease. 
Clans  in  the  life-time  of  old  men  have  entirely  disappeared  ;  in 
others,  only  a  few  individuals  remain."  —  Du  Chaillu's  Ashango- 
Land,  page  225. 


"The  decrease  of  the  African  population  is  owing  to  several 
causes :  the  slave-trade,  polygamy,  barrenness  of  women,  death 
among  children,  plagues,  and  witchcraft,  —  the  latter  taking 
away  more  lives  than  any  slave-trade  ever  did.  The  negro  does 
not  seem  to  diminish  only  in  the  region  I  have  visited ;  but  in 
every  other  part  of  Africa,  travellers,  who  after  the  lapse  of  a 
few  years  have  returned  a  second  time  in  the  same  country,  have 
noticed  a  decrease  of  population.  .  .  .  The  women  of  the  in- 
terior are  prolific,  and  in  despite  of  it  shall  we  assume  that  the 
negro  race  has  run  its  course,  and  that  in  due  course  of  time  it 
will  disappear,  as  many  races  of  mankind  have  done  before  him  ? 
The  Southern  States  of  America  were,  I  believe,  the  only  country 
in  which  the  negro  is  known  to  have  increased." — Du  Chailltfs 
Asliango-Land,  page  435. 


"  The  name  of  Hottentot  will  soon  be  forgotten,  or  remembered 
only  as  that  of  a  deceased  person  of  little  note.  Their  numbers 
of  late  years  have  been  rapidly  on  the  decline.  It  has  generally 
been  observed  that  wherever  Europeans  have  colonized,  the  least 
civilized  have  always  dwindled  away,  and  at  length  totally  dis- 
appeared."—  Barrow's  Africa,  Vol.  I., page  93. 


"  It  is  impossible  to  conceal  one's  fears  for  the  ultimate  exist- 
ence of  most  of  the  colored  races  in  South  Africa ;  I  mean  those, 
in  the  first  instance,  within  the  colony,  and  those  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  places  where  the  emigrant  Boers  have  lately  settled. 
The  lands  of  the  native  tribes  become  gradually  encroached  on ; 


160          PROBABLE  EXTINCTION   OF  THE  NEGRO  RACE. 

jealousies  and  animosities,  wars  and  retaliations  arise ;  the  na 
tive  tribes  are  driven  back,  lose  their  property,  their  lands,  their 
courage ;  they  fall  back  on  other  tribes,  where  they  encounter 
more  or  less  resistance,  become  weaker  and  weaker,  and  the 
white  man  advances,  and  absorbs  the  whole."  —  Freeman's  Mis- 
sionary Travels  in  Africa,  page  68. 


"  At  present,  it  appears  to  me  that  the  prospects  of  the  colored 
races  of  South  Africa,  taken  on  the  broadest  scale,  are  such  as 
Christian  philanthropy  may  weep  over.  I  see  no  prospect  of  their 
preservation  for  any  very  lengthened  period.  The  struggle  may 
last  for  a  considerable  time.  Missionary  effort  may  not  only  save 
many  of  the  souls  of  men,  but  help  to  defer  the  evil  day  of  anni- 
hilation as  to  many  of  the  aboriginal  tribes.  But  annihilation  is 
steadily  advancing ;  and  nothing  can  arrest  it  without  an  entire 
change  in  the  system  of  government,  wherever  British  subjects 
come  in  contact  with  the  native  tribes." — Freeman's  Missionary 
Travels  in  Africa,  page  261. 


"  In  our  own  day  a  disintegrating  process  is  ever  spreading 
among  the  nations  of  Eastern  Africa,  and  the  East  Africans  them- 
selves avow  that  things  went  better  with  them  in  their  fathers' 
time ;  that  greater  kings  and  chiefs  existed  then  than  now,  and 
that  a  new  element  must  be  introduced  among  them.  The  de- 
scendants of  Ham  have  outlived  themselves."  —  Krapfs  Africa, 
page  393. 


"  How  the  negro  has  lived  so  many  ages  without  advancing, 
seems  marvellous,  when  all  the  countries  surrounding  Africa  are 
so  forward  in  comparison ;  and  judging  from  the  progressive 
state  of  the  world,  one  is  led  to  suppose  that  the  African  must 
soon  either  step  out  from  his  darkness,  or  be  superseded  by  a 
being  superior  to  himself.  Could  a  government  be  formed  for 
them  like  ours  in  India,  they  would  be  saved ;  but,  without  it,  I 
fear  there  is  very  little  chance  ;  for  at  present  the  African  neither 
can  help  himself,  nor  will  he  be  helped  by  others,  because  his 
country  is  in  such  a  constant  state  of  turmoil  he  has  too  much 


PROBABLE  EXTINCTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  RACE.          161 

anxiety  on  hand  looking  out  for  his  food  to  think  of  anything  else. 
As  his  fathers  ever  did,  so  does  he.  He  works  his  wife,  sells  his 
children,  enslaves  all  he  can  lay  hands  upon,  and,  unless  when 
fighting  for  the  property  of  others,  contents  himself  with  drinking, 
singing,  and  dancing  like  a  baboon,  to  drive  dull  care  away."  — 
Speke's  Africa,  page  24. 


Eev.  E.  M.  Wheelock,  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion of  Freedmen,  Department  of  the  Gulf,  —  formerly 
Chaplain  of  one  of  the  New  Hampshire  Regiments,  —  under 
date  of  New  Orleans,  Feb.  8,  1865,  wrote  to  William  Lloyd 
Garrison  as  follows  :  — 

"On  scores  of  plantations,  labor  was  wholly  suspended;  and 
the  laborers  in  hundreds,  with  their  wives  and  little  ones,  had 
gathered  around  the  forts  and  soldiers'  camps.  There  they  eai-ned 
a  precarious  living  by  such  uncertain  and  intermitted  employ- 
ment as  they  might  find ;  the  men  as  servants,  hostlers,  camp 
followers,  and  hangers-on,  —their  wives  as  cooks,  washerwomen, 
etc.  Hunger,  cold,  fever,  and  small  pox  were  carrying  off  the 
children  at  a  fearful  rate  of  mortality.  The  morals  of  the  men 
were  being  undermined  by  idleness  and  evil  example,  and  the 
modesty  of  the  women  debauched  by  contact  with  all  that  is 
bebasing  in  military  life.  From  month  to  month  their  numbers 
visibly  decreased ;  and  it  really  seemed  as  though  the  Southern 
Negro,  like  the  Indian,  the  Caffre,  the  Carib,  and  the  Australian, 
would  become  extinct  before  the  rude  shock  of  the  war,  and  the 
coiTosive  venom  of  our  vices.  The  slave  in  Louisiana  had 
become  free,  de  facto,  and  in  a  qualified  sense ;  but,  alas !  his 
freedom  only  meant  the  power  to  become  idle,  to  become  im- 
moral, to  sicken  and  to  die." 
U* 


162          DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  WHITES  AND   BLACKS. 


CHAPTER    XXIX. 

NATURAL,  REPULSIVE,  AND  IRRECONCILABLE  POINTS  OP  DIFFER- 
ENCE, PHYSICAL,  MENTAL,  AND  MORAL,  BETWEEN  THE  WHITES 
AND  THE  BLACKS.* 

"  So  great  a  difference  of  opinion  has  ever  existed  upon  the 
intrinsic  value  of  the  negro,  that  the  very  perplexity  of  the  ques- 
tion is  a  proof  that  he  is  altogether  a  distinct  variety.  So  long  as 
it  is  generally  considered  that  the  negro  and  the  white  man  are  to 
be  governed  by  the  same  laws  and  guided  by  the  same  manage- 
ment, so  long  will  the  former  remain  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  every 
community  to  which  he  may  unhappily  belong.  When  the  horse 
and  the  ass  shall  be  found  to  match  in  double  harness,  the  white 
man  and  the  African  black  will  pull  together  under  the  same  re- 
gime. It  is  the  grand  error  of  equalizing  that  which  is  unequal 
that  has  lowered  the  negro  character,  and  made  the  black  man  a 
reproach."  —  Baker's  Great  Basin  of  the  Nile,  page  195. 


"  The  obtuseness  of  the  savages  was  such,  that  I  never  could 
make  them  understand  the  existence  of  any  good  principle ;  — 
their  one  idea  was  power,  —  force  that  could  obtain  all,  —  the 
strong  hand  that  could  wrest  from  the  weak.  In  disgust  I  fre- 
quently noted  the  feelings  of  the  moment  in  my  journal,  —  a  mem- 
orandum from  which  I  copy  as  illustrative  of  the  time.  '  1863, 
10th  April.  —  I  wish  the  black  sympathizers  in  England  could 
see  Africa's  inmost  heart  as  I  do ;  much  of  their  sympathy  would 
subside.  Human  nature  viewed  in  its  crude  state  as  pictured 
amongst  African  savages  is  quite  on  a  level  with  that  of  the 
brute,  and  not  to  be  compared  with  the  noble  character  of  the 
dog.  There  is  neither  gratitude,  pity,  love,  ncfr  self-denial ;  no 


*  For  a  fuller  and  more  minute  elucidation  of  the  physical,  mental,  and  moral 
differences  which  exist  between  white  people  and  negroes,  see  the  remaining  por- 
tions of  this  work,  especially  the  next  succeeding  chapter,  entitled  "American 
Writers  on  the  Negro."  The  testimonies  given  in  the  present  chapter  are  almost 
exclusively  those  of  intelligent  white  travellers,  who  have  seen  (and  who,  as  care- 
ful and  correct  observers,  have  always  seen  only  with  indignation  and  disgust)  the 
negroes  iii  Kegrolaud. 


DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  WHITES  AND  BLACKS.         163 

idea  of  duty ;  no  religion ;  but  covetousness,  ingratitude,  selfish- 
ness, and  cruelty.  All  are  thieves,  idle,  envious,  and  ready  to 
plunder  and  enslave  their  weaker  neighbors.'"  —  Baker's  Great 
Basin  of  the  Nile,  page  164. 


"  In  childhood  I  believe  the  negro  to  be  in  advance,  in  intellec- 
tual quickness,  of  the  white  child  of  a  similar  age,  but  the  mind 
does  not  expand ;  it  promises  fruit,  but  does  not  ripen ;  and  the 
negro  mind  has  grown  in  body,  but  has  not  advanced  in  intellect. 
The  puppy  of  three  months  old  is  superior  in  intellect  to  a  child 
of  the  same  age,  but  the  mind  of  the  child  expands,  Avhile  that  of 
the  dog  has  arrived  at  its  limit.  The  chicken  of  the  common  fowl 
has  sufficient  power  and  instinct  to  run  in  search  of  food  the  mo- 
ment that  it  leaves  the  egg,  while  the  young  of  the  eagle  lies 
helpless  in  its  nest ;  but  the  young  eagle  outstrips  the  chicken  in 
the  course  of  time.  The  earth  presents  a  wonderful  example  of 
variety  in  all  classes  of  the  human  race,  the  animal  and  vegetable 
kingdoms.  People,  beasts,  and  plants  belonging  to  distinct  class- 
es, exhibit  special  qualities  and  peculiarities.  The  existence  of 
many  hundred  varieties  of  dogs  cannot  interfere  with  the  fact  that 
they  belong  to  one  genus,  —  the  greyhound,  pug,  bloodhound, 
pointer,  poodle,  mastiff,  and  terrier,  are  all  as  entirely  different 
in  their  peculiar  instincts  as  are  the  varieties  of  the  human  race. 
The  different  fruits  and  flowers  continue  the  example,  — the  wild 
grapes  of  the  forest  are  grapes,  but,  although  they  belong  to  the 
same  class,  they  are  distinct  from  the  luscious  Muscatel ;  and  the 
wild  dog-rose  of  the  hedge,  although  of  the  same  class,  is  inferior 
to  the  moss-rose  of  the  garden.  From  fruits  and  flowers  we  may 
turn  to  insect  life,  and  watch  the  air  teeming  with  varieties  of  the 
same  species,  —  the  thousands  of  butterflies  and  beetles,  the  many 
members  of  each  class  varying  in  instincts  and  peculiarities.  Fish- 
es, and  even  shell-fish,  all  exhibit  the  same  arrangement ;  that 
every  group  is  divided  into  varieties,  all  differing  from  each  other, 
and  each  distinguished  by  some  peculiar  excellence  or  defect."  — 
Baker's  Or  eat  Basin  of  the  Nile,  page  195. 


"  The  negro  is  a  being  who  invents  nothing,  originates  nothing, 
improves  nothing;  who  can  only  cook,  nurse,  and  fiddle;  who 


164          DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  WHITES  AND  BLACKS. 

has  neither  energy  nor  industry,  save  in  rare  cases,  that  prove  the 
rule ;  he  is  the  self-constituted  thrall  that  delights  in  subjection 
to,  and  in  imitation  of,  the  superior  races.  The  Aboriginal  Amer- 
ican has  never  been  known  to  slave ;  the  African,  since  he  landed 
in  Virginia,  in  1620,  has  chosen  nothing  else ;  has  never,  until 
egged  on,  dreamed  of  being  free." — Burtoris  Wanderings  in  West 
Africa,  Vol.  I.,  page  175. 


"Eastern  and  Central  intertropical  Africa  also  lacks  antiqua- 
rian and  historic  interest ;  it  has  few  traditions,  no  annals,  and 
no  ruins,  —  the  hoary  remnants  of  past  splendor  so  dear  to  the 
traveller  and  to  the  reader  of  travels.  It  contains  not  a  single 
useful  or  ornamental  work;  a  canal  or  a  dam  is,  and  has  ever 
been,  beyond  the  narrow  bounds  of  its  civilization."  —  Burton's 
Africa,  page  88. 


"  The  African's  wonderful  loquacity  and  volubility  of  tongue 
have  produced  no  tales,  poetry,  nor  display  of  eloquence ;  though, 
like  most  barbarians,  somewhat  sententious,  he  will  content  him- 
self with  squabbling  with  his  companions,  or  with  repeating  some 
meaningless  word  in  every  different  tone  of  voice  during  the 
weary  length  of  a  day's  march."  —  Burton's  Africa,  page  497. 


"Music  is  at  a  low  ebb.  Admirable  tunists,  and  no  mean 
tunists,  the  people  betray  their  incapacity  for  improvement  by  re- 
maining contented  with  the  simplest  and  the  most  monotonous 
combinations  of  sounds.  As  in  everything  else,  so  in  this  art,  — 
creative  talent  is  wanting.  A  higher  development  would  have 
produced  other  results ;  yet  it  is  impossible  not  to  remark  the  de- 
light which  they  take  in  harmony.  The  fisherman  will  accompany 
his  paddle,  the  porter  his  trudge,  and  the  housewife  her  task  of 
shelling  grain,  with  a  song;  and  for  long  hours  at  night  the 
peasants  will  sit  in  a  ring  repeating,  with  a  zest  that  never  flags, 
the  same  few  notes,  and  the  same  unmeaning  line."  —  Burtori* 
Africa,  page  468. 


DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  WHITES  AND  BLACKS.          165 

"  Devotedly  fond  of  music,  the  negro's  love  of  tune  has  invented 
nothing  but  whistling  and  the  whistle ;  his  instruments  are  all 
borrowed  from  the  coast  people.  He  delights  in  singing,  yet  he 
has  no  metrical  songs ;  he  contents  himself  with  improvising  a 
few  notes  without  sense  or  rhyme,  and  repeats  them  till  they 
nauseate.  .  .  .  When  mourning,  the  love  of  music  assumes 
a  peculiar  form;  women  weeping  or  sobbing,  especially  after 
chastisement,  will  break  into  a  protracted  threne  or  dirge,  every 
period  of  which  concludes  with  its  own  particular  groan  or  wail. 
After  venting  a  little  natural  distress  in  a  natural  sound,  the  long, 
loud  improvisation,  in  the  highest  falsetto  key,  continues  as  be- 
fore." —  Burton's  Africa,  page  497. 


"  The  sebaceous  odor  of  the  skin  among  all  these  races  is  over- 
powering, and  is  emitted  with  the  greatest  effect  during  and  after 
excitement,  whether  of  mind  or  body."  —  Burton's  Africa,  page 
89. 


"  Up  to  the  age  of  fourteen,  the  black  children  advance  as  fast 
as  the  white,  but  after  that  age,  unless  there  be  an  admixture  of 
white  blood,  it  becomes,  in  most  instances,  extremely  difficult  to 
cany  them  forward." —  Sir  Charles  LyelVs  Second  Visit  to  the  United 
States,  Vol.  I.,  page  105. 


"  A  certain  skill  in  mechanics,  without  the  genius  of  invention ; 
a  great  fluency  of  language,  without  energy  in  ideas ;  a  correct 
ear  for  music,  without  a  capacity  for  composition, — in  a  word, 
a  display  of  imitative  faculties,  with  an  utter  barrenness  of 
creative  power ;  there  is  your  negro  at  the  very  best.  Even  these 
are  rare,  almost  exceptional,  cases;  and  to  show  such  trained 
animals  as  fair  samples  of  the  negro  is  to  make  an  exhibition  of 
black  lies.  One  might  almost  as  well  assert,  after  the  sights 
which  one  sees  at  a  country  fair,  that  all  pigs  are  learned ;  that 
the  hare  plays  on  a  drum  in  its  native  state ;  and  that  it  is  the  na- 
ture of  piebald  horses  to  rotate  in  a  circle  to  the  sound  of  a  brass 
band."  —  Readers  Savage  Africa,  page  33. 


\ 

166         DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  WHITES  AND  BLACKS. 

"  It  has  been  proved  by  measurements,  by  microscopes,  by 
analysis,  that  the  typical  negro  is  something  between  a  child,  a 
dotard,  and  a  beast.  I  cannot  struggle  against  these  sacred  facts 
of  science."  —  Readers  Savage  Africa,  page  399. 


"  I  shall  be  blamed  by  ignorant  persons  when  I  say  that,  if  war 
is  waged  against  savages,  it  must  be  a  massacre,  or  it  is  useless. 
Cruel  as  this  maxim  may  appear,  it  would,  if  followed  out,  be  the 
cause  of  less  misery  and  bloodshed  afterward.  It  must  be  re- 
membered that  the  minds  of  savages  are  as  differently  constituted 
from  our  minds,  as  are  their  bodies  from  our  bodies.  .... 
Forbearance  these  negroes  ascribe  to  fear,  and  mercy  to  personal 
interest."  —  Readers  Savage  Africa,  page  327. 


"The  Shangalla  go  all  naked;  they  have  several  wives,  and 
these  very  prolific.  They  bring  forth  children  with  the  utmost 
ease,  and  never  rest  or  confine  themselves  after  delivery;  but, 
•washing  themselves  and  the  child  with  cold  water,  they  wrap  it 
up  in  a  soft  cloth  made  of  the  bark  of  trees,  and  hang  it  upon  a 
branch,  that  the  large  ants,  with  which  they  are  infested,  and  the 
serpents  may  not  devour  it.  After  a  few  days,  when  it  has  gath- 
ered strength,  the  mother  carries  it  in  the  same  cloth  upon  her 
back,  and  gives  it  suck  with  the  breast,  which  she  throws  over 
her  shoulder,  this  part  being  of  such  a  length  as,  in  some,  to 
reach  almost  to  their  knees."  — Brace's  Travels,  Vol.  II.,  page  553. 


"A  Shangalla  woman,  upon  bearing  a  child  or  two,  at  ten  or 
eleven  years  old,  sees  her  breast  fall  immediately  down  to  near 
her  knees.  Her  common  manner  of  suckling  her  children  is  by 
carrying  them  upon  her  back,  as  our  beggars  do,  and  giving  the 
infant  the  breast  over  her  shoulders.  They  rarely  are  mothers 
after  twenty-two,  or  begin  child-bearing  before  they  are  ten ;  so 
that  the  time  of  child-bearing  is  but  twelve  years."  —  Brace's 
Travels,  Vol.  II.,  page  559. 


The  women  of  this  part  of  Africa  are  certainly  singularly 


DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  WHITES  AND  BLACKS.          167 

gifted  with  the  Hottentot  protuberance.  ...  So  much  de- 
pends on  the  magnitude  of  those  attractions  for  which  their 
southern  sisters  are  so  celebrated,  that  I  have  known  a  man, 
about  to  make  a  purchase  of  one  out  of  three,  regardless  of  the 
charms  of  feature,  turn  their  faces  from  him,  and  looking  at  them 
behind,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  hips,  make  choice  of  her  whose  per- 
son most  projected  beyond  that  of  her  companions."  —  Deriham's 
Africa,  Vol.  II. ,  page  89. 


"  Neither  in  the  Desert  nor  in  the  kingdoms  of  Central  Africa 
is  there  any  march  of  civilization.  All  goes  on  according  to  a 
certain  routine  established  forages  past."  —  Richardson's  Africa, 
Vol.  I.,  page  305. 


"  There  is  not  a  tincture  of  letters  or  of  writing  among  all  the 
aboriginal  tribes  of  Africa.  There  is  not  a  hieroglyphic  or  a 
symbol,  — nothing  corresponding  to  the  painted  stories  of  Mexico, 
or  the  knotted  quipos  of  Peru.  Oral  communication  forms  the 
only  channel  by  which  thought  can  be  transmitted  from  one 
country  and  one  age  to  another.  The  lessons  of  time,  the  ex- 
perience of  ages,  do  not  exist  for  the  nations  of  this  vast  conti- 
nent." —  Murray's  African  Discoveries,  page  233. 


"  I  found  his  majesty  sitting  upon  a  bullock's  hide,  warming 
himself  before  a  large  fire ;  for  the  Afi'icans  are  sensible  of  the 
smallest  variation  in  the  temperature  of  the  air,  and  frequently 
complain  of  cold  when  a  European  is  oppressed  with  heat."  — 
Mungo  Park's  First  Journal,  page  41. 


"  They  seem  to  have  no  social  tenderness,  very  few  of  those 
amiable  private  virtues  which  would  win  our  affection,  and  none 
of  those  public  qualities  that  claim  respect  or  command  admira- 
tion. The  love  of  country  is  not  strong  enough  in  their  bosoms 
to  incite  them  to  defend  it  against  the  irregular  incursions  of  a 
despicable  foe ;  and  of  the  active  energy,  noble  sentiments,  and 
contempt  of  danger,  which  distinguish  the  North  American  tribes 


168         DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  WHITES  AND  BLACKS. 

and  other  savages,  no  traces  are  to  be  found  among  this  slothful 
people.  Regardless  of  the  past  as  reckless  of  the  future,  the  pres- 
ent alone  influences  their  actions.  In  this  respect  they  approach 
nearer  to  the  nature  of  the  brute  than  pei'haps  any  other  people 
on  the  face  of  the  globe." — Lander's  Travels  in  Africa,  Vol.  /., 
page  176 


"  Clicking  is  a  peculiarity  of  several  South  African  languages. 
The  Bushmen,  Hottentots,  and  Kaffirs  have  each  several  clicks. 
The  Natal  Kaffirs  use  but  three,  and  these  not  frequently,  as  there 
are  few  words  but  can  be  understood  without  the  click.  In  the 
Bushmen's  language,  very  many  are  used,  and  I  have  heard  that 
a  Bushman  is  not  considered  to  speak  his  language  elegantly 
until  age  has  deprived  him  of  all  his  teeth.  These  curious  little 
men  use  a  great  deal  of  action  during  their  conversation  ;  and  it 
is  said  that  if  a  Bushman  wishes  to  talk  during  a  dark  night,  he 
is  obliged  to  light  a  fire,  to  enable  the  listeners  to  see  his  action, 
and  thereby  fully  to  comprehend  his  meaning."  —  Draysoris 
Africa,  page  58. 


"  The  Bosjesmans,  indeed,  are  amongst  the  ugliest  of  all  hu- 
man beings.  The  flat  nose,  high  cheek-bones,  prominent  chin, 
and  concave  visage,  partake  much  of  the  apish  character,  which 
their  keen  eye,  always  in  motion,  tends  not  to  diminish.  The 
upper  lid  of  this  organ,  as  in  that  of  the  Chinese,  is  rounded  into 
the  lower  on  the  side  next  the  nose,  and  forms  not  an  angle,  as  is 
the  case  in  the  eye  of  a  European,  but  a  circular  sweep,  so  that 
the  point  of  union  between  the  upper  and  lower  eyelid  is  not  as- 
certainable.  Their  bellies  are  uncommonly  protuberant,  and 
their  backs  hollow.  .  .  .(  As  a  means  of  increasing  their  speed 
in  the  chase,  or  when  pursued  by  an  enemy,  the  men  had  adopted 
a  custom,  which  was  sufficiently  remarkable,  of  pushing  the  tes- 
ticles to  the  upper  part  of  the  root  of  the  penis,  where  they  seemed 
to  remain  as  firmly  fixed,  and  as  conveniently  placed,  as  if  nature 
had  stationed  them  there."  —  Barrow's  Africa,  Vol.  /.,  page  234.^ 


"  The  great  curvature  of  the  spine  inwards,  and  the  remark- 


DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  WHITES  AND  BLACKS.          169 

ably  extended  posteriors,  are  characteristic  of  the  whole  Hotten- 
tot race ;  but,  in  some  of  the  small  Bosjesmans,  they  are  carried 
to  such  an  extravagant  degree  as  to  excite  laughter.  If  the  letter 
S  be  considered  as  one  expression  of  the  line  of  beauty  to  which 
degrees  of  approximation  are  admissible,  some  of  the  women  of 
this  nation  are  entitled  to  the  first  rank  in  point  of  form.  A  sec- 
tion of  the  body,  from  the  breast  to  the  knee,  forms  really  the 
shape  of  the  above  letter.  The  projection  of  the  posterior  part, 
in  one  subject,  measured  five  inches  and  a  half  from  the  line 
touching  the  spine.  This  protuberance  consisted  entirely  of  fat, 
and,  when  the  woman  walked,  it  exhibited  the  most  ridiculous 
appearance  imaginable,  every  step  being  accompanied  with  a 
quivering  and  tremulous  motion,  as  if  two  masses  of  jelly  had 
been  attached  behind  her."  —  Barrow's  Africa,  Vol.  I.,  page  237. 


"The  loose,  long,  hanging  breasts,  and  disproportionate  thick- 
ness of  the  hinder  parts,  make  a  Bosjesman  woman,  in  the  eyes  of 
a  European,  a  real  object  of  horror."  —  Lichtensteiri's  Africa,  Vol. 
I.,  page  117. 


"  For  the  most  part,  the  hordes  keep  at  a  distance  from  each 
other,  since  the  smaller  the  number  the  easier  is  a  supply  of  food 
procured.  So  trifling  is  the  intercourse  among  them,  that  the 
names  of  even  the  most  common  objects  are  as  various  as  the 
number  of  hordes.  Their  language  is  disagreeably  sonorous, 
from  the  frequent  clacking  of  the  teeth,  and  the  prevailing  croak- 
ing in  the  throat ;  and  it  is  extremely  poor,  no  less  in  words  than 
in  sounds ;  they  understand  each  other  more  by  their  gestures 
than  by  their  speaking.  No  Bosjesman  has  a  name  peculiar  to 
himself."  —  Lichtensteiri's  Africa,  Vol.  II.,  page  49. 


"  If  the  ease  with  which  a  man  is  amused,  surprised,  or  delud- 
ed, is  a  fair  measure  of  intellectual  grade,  I  fear  that  African 
minds  will  take  only  a  very  moderate  rank  in  the  scale  of  human- 
ity. The  task  of  self-civilization,  which  resembles  the  self-filter- 
ing of  water,  has  done  but  little  for  Ethiopia  in  the  ages  that  have 
passed  simultaneously  over  her  people  and  the  progressive  races 
15 


170         DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  WHITES  AND  SLACKS. 

of  other  lands."  —  CanoCs  Twenty  Tears  of  an  African  Slaver,  page 
231. 


"  When  two  Namaquas  are  talking  together,  and  one  is  relat- 
ing a  story,  the  listener  repeats  the  last  words  of  the  speaker,  even 
if  he  should  know  as  much  of  the  matter  as  his  informant.  For 
instance,  if  a  man  begin  his  recital  by  saying,  '  As  I  walked  along 
the  river,  a  very  large  rhinoceros  rushed  suddenly  upon  me.' 
'  Rushed  suddenly  upon  me,'  echoes  the  auditor.  '  He  was  very 
fat.'  '  Very  fat,'  the  other  ejaculates,  and  so  forth."  —  Anderssori'f 
Africa,  page  259. 


"  Unfortunately  the  people  are  altogether  deficient  of  any  ra- 
tional or  charitable  feeling.  Music  is  scarcely  known,  or  indeed 
any  other  exertion  of  the  mind  calculated  to  correct  or  improve  the 
natural  passions.1'  —  Duncan's  Africa,  Vol.  I.,  page  199. 


"  In  every  part  of  the  United  States,  there  is  a  broad  nnd  im- 
passable line  of  demarcation  between  every  man  who  has  one 
drop  of  African  blood  in  his  veins,  and  every  other  class  in  the 
community.  The  habits,  the  feelings,  all  the  prejudices  of  society, 
—  prejudices  which  neither  refinement,  nor  argument,  nor  educa- 
tion, nor  religion  itself,  can  subdue, — mark  the  people  of  color, 
whether  bond  or  free,  as  the  subjects  of  a  degradation  inevitable 
and  incurable.  The  African  in  this  country  belongs  by  birth  to  the 
very  lowest  station  in  society ;  and  from  that  station  he  can  never 
rise,  be  his  talents,  his  enterprise,  his  virtues  what  they  may."  — 
African  Repository,  Vol.  IV.,  page  118. 


"  The  typical  woolly-haired  races  have  never  invented  a  reasoned 
or  reasonable  theological  system;  discovered  an  alphabet;  framed 
a  grammatical  language ;  nor  made  the  least  step  in  science  or 
art.  They  have  scarcely  comprehended  what  they  have  learned ; 
or  retained  a  civilization  taught  them  by  contact  with  more  refined 
nations,  so  soon  as  that  contact  has  ceased.  They  have  at  no  time 
formed  great  political  states,  nor  commenced  a  self-evolving  civ- 


DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  WHITES  AND  BLACKS.          171 

ilization."  —  Hamilton  Smith's  Natural  History  of  the  Human  Spe- 
cies, page  196. 


"  The  negro  is  not  wholly  without  talents,  but  they  are  limited 
to  imitation,  —  the  learning  of  what  has  been  previously  known. 
He  has  neither  invention  nor  judgment.  Africans  may  be  consid- 
ered docile,  but  few  of  them  are  judicious,  and  thus  in  mental 
qualities  we  are  disposed  to  see  a  certain  analogy  with  the  apes, 
whose  imitative  powers  are  proverbial."  —  Burmeister^s  Black  Man, 
page  14. 


"  The  tune  the  negroes  sing  is  very  simple,  entirely  free  from  va- 
riations, and  is  constantly  repeated  in  the  same  key.  The  voice  is 
high,  —  a  sort  of  shrieking  falsetto.  The  key  is  commonly  in  moll, 
seldom  in  dur,  and  each  verse  of  the  song  terminates  in  a  long- 
protracted,  soft  sound,  in  the  singing  of  which  alone  can  we  ob- 
serve anything  like  freedom  and  variety  of  expression.  Dull  and 
deep  tones  are  disagreeable  to  the  negro.  He  tries  to  raise  his 
voice  to  the  highest  possible  pitch,  and  even  his  laughter  has  more 
the  sound  of  whistling  than  laughing.  The  shrill,  drawn-out '  hie ' 
they  constantly  emit  as  a  mark  of  joyful  surprise,  reminded  me  of 
the  harsh  shrieking  cries  of  the  apes."  —  Burmeister'ls  Black  Man, 
page  16. 


"  On  several  occasions,  when  I  met  with  a  negro  with  a  physi- 
ognomy that  pleased  me,  I  attempted  to  begin  a  conversation  with 
him,  in  order  to  discover  his  intellectual  and  spiritual  character- 
istics, after  having  studied  his  body.  The  result,  however,  uni- 
versally satisfied  me  of  his  deficiencies  in  this  respect,  and  served 
to  confirm  me  in  my  opinion  that  the  negro  cares  only  for  those 
things  which  belong  to  the  very  lowest  grades  of  the  human  fam- 
ily." —  Burmeister's  Black  Man,  page  12. 


"  There  is  not  a  single  bookseller's  shop  in  either  Eastern  or 
Western  Africa."  —  Livingstone's  Africa,  page  689. 


172          DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN   WHITES  AND  BLACKS. 

"Among  the  negroes,  no  science  has  been  developed,  and  few 
questions  are  ever  discussed,  except  those  which  have  an  intimate 
connection  with  the  wants  of  the  stomach." — Livingstone's  Africa, 
page  138. 


"  The  thermometer,  placed  upon  a  deal  box  in  the  sun,  rose  to 
138°.  It  stood  at  108°  in  the  shade  by  day,  and  96°  at  sunset.  If 
my  experiments  were  correct,  the  blood  of  a  European  is  of  a 
higher  temperature  than  that  of  an  African.  The  bulb,  held 
under  my  tongue,  stood  at  100° ;  under  that  of  the  natives,  at 
98°."  —  Livingstone's  Africa,  page  548. 


"  Among  the  slaves  living  at  Aniambie,  to  work  the  king's  plan- 
tations, were  specimens  of  no  less  than  eleven  different  tribes. 
Some  old  slaves  from  the  far  interior  seemed  very  little  removed 
from  the  Anthropoid  apes  in  their  shape  and  features,  —  lean  legs, 
heavy  bodies,  with  prominent  abdomen,  retreating  forehead, 
and  projecting  muzzles ;  they  were  more  like  animals  than 
men."  —  Du  Chaillu'a  Ashango-Land,  page  42. 


"  The  reader  who  has  followed  me  through  the  volume  of  my 
former  exploration  and  the  present  book,  will  have  been  able  to 
gather  an  idea  of  the  general  character  and  disposition  of  the 
negro  of  this  part  of  Africa,  as  he  now  stands.  I  have  made  re- 
searches to  ascertain  if  his  race  had  formerly  left  remains,  show- 
ing that  he  had  once  attained  a  tolerably  high  state  of  civilization ; 
my  researches  have  proved  vain ;  I  have  found  no  vestige  what- 
ever of  ancient  civilization.  Other  travellers  in  different  parts  of 
Africa  have  not  been  more  successful  than  I  have." — Du  Chaillu'a 
Ashango-Land,  page  435. 


AMERICAN  WRITERS   ON  THE  NEGRO.  173 

CHAPTER    XXX. 

AMERICAN   WRITERS   ON  THE  NEGRO. 

THOMAS  JEFFERSON,  the  fame  of  whose  great  intellect  and 
commanding  abilities  seems  to  increase  with  the  growth  of 
time,  was  the  first  American  who,  having  acquired  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  inferior  and  baneful  nature  of  the  negro, 
wrote  learnedly  and  truthfully  about  him ;  and  who,  at  the 
same  time,  with  the  vision  of  an  impassioned  prophet,  im- 
plored his  countrymen  to  avert,  by  a  system  of  emancipation 
and  deportation,  the  very  condition  of  national  disgrace  and 
ruin  which  has  at  last  so  nearly  overtaken  us.  Yet  such  are 
tlie  vagaries  of  certain  sophists  that  the  opinions  of  the 
renowned  author  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  are 
sometimes  appealed  to  in  support  of  the  false  positions  of 
those  who  favor  the  recognition  of  the  negro,  upon  terms  of 
perfect  equality,  as  a  fellow-peer,  a  cousin-german,  and  a 
brother !  The  latest  notable  instance  of  this  fallacy  is 
afforded  by  the  New  York  "Tribune,"  of  April  14,  1866,  in 
these  words :  — 

"  Mr.  Jefferson  is,  and  ought  to  be,  held  in  sincere  reverence 
by  all  Radicals  because  of  his  agency  in  basing  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  on  the  broad,  comprehensive,  eternal  principle 
of  Equal  Human  Rights.  As  to  the  fundamental  base  of  our 
political  system,  Mr.  Jefferson  is  and  ought  to  be  the  highest 
authority." 

Now,  if  we  will  but  fairly  scrutinize,  and  weigh  well, 
what  Mr.  Jefferson  really  did  say  and  write,  at  intervals, 
during  the  long  period  of  the  half  century  immediately  sub- 
sequent to  the  date  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  we 
will  find  that  he  had,  indeed,  no  sympathy  whatever  with  the 
erroneous  and  unnatural  views  touching  the  negro,  which  are 
now  so  strenuously  advocated  by  the  "  Tribune  "  and  other 
15* 


174  AMERICAN   WRITERS   ON  THE  NEGRO. 

oracular  exponents  of  the  Radical  faith.  For  full  proof  of 
this,  remembering  that,  without  any  specific  reference  or 
allusion  to  the  negro,  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was 
written  in  1776,  let  us,  in  the  following  pages,  see  something 
of  what  Mr.  Jefferson  did  pointedly  and  specifically  write 
about  the  negro,  between  the  date  of  that  ever-memorable 
document,  July  4,  1776,  and  the  date  of  the  death  of  its 
illustrious  author,  July  4,  1826  :  — 


"DEEP-ROOTED  PREJUDICES  ENTERTAINED  BY  THE  WHITES; 
TEN  THOUSAND  RECOLLECTIONS,  BY  THE  BLACKS,  OP  THE  IN- 
JURIES THEY  HAVE  SUSTAINED  ;  NEW  PROVOCATIONS  ;  THE  REAL 
DISTINCTIONS  WHICH  NATURE  HAS  MADE ;  AND  MANY  OTHER  CIR- 
CUMSTANCES, WILL  DIVIDE  US  INTO  PARTIES,  AND  PRODUCE  CON- 
VULSIONS, WHICH  WILL  PROBABLY  NEVER  END  BUT  IN  THE  EX- 
TERMINATION OP  THE  ONE  OR  THE  OTHER  RACE.  To  these 

objections,  which  are  political,  may  be  added  others,  which  are 
physical  and  moral.  The  first  difference  which  strikes  us  is  that 
of  color.  Whether  the  black  of  the  negro  resides  in  the  reticular 
membrane  between  the  skin  and  scarf-skin,  or  in  the  scarf-skin 
itself;  whether  it  proceeds  from  the  color  of  the  blood,  the  color 
of  the  bile,  or  from  that  of  some  other  secretion,  the  difference  is 
fixed  in  nature,  and  is  as  real  as  if  its  seat  and  cause  were  better 
known  to  us.  And  is  this  difference  of  no  importance  ?  Is  it  not 
the  foundation  of  a  greater  or  less  share  of  beauty  in  the  two 
races  ?  Are  not  the  fine  mixtures  of  red  and  white,  the  expres- 
sions of  every  passion  by  greater  or  less  suffusions  of  color  in  the 
one,  preferable  to  that  eternal  monotony,  which  reigns  in  the 
countenances,  that  immovable  veil  of  black  which  covers  the 
emotions  of  the  other  race?  ....  The  circumstance  of 
superior  beauty  is  thought  worthy  of  attention  in  the  propagation 
of  our  horses,  dogs,  and  other  domestic  animals ;  why  not  in  that 
of  man  ?  Besides  those  of  color,  figure,  and  hair,  there  are  other 
physical  distinctions  proving  a  difference  of  race.  They  have  less 
hair  on  the  face  and  body.  They  secrete  less  by  the  kidneys, 
and  more  by  the  glands  of  the  skin,  which  gives  them  a  very 
strong  and  disagreeable  odor.  This  greater  degree  of  transpira- 
tion renders  them  more  tolerant  of  heat,  and  less  so  of  cold  than 


AMERICAN  WRITERS   ON  THE  NEGRO.  175 

the  whites.  .  .  .  They  are  more  ardent  after  their  female ; 
but  love  seems  with  them  to  be  more  an  eager  desire,  than  a 
tender,  delicate  mixture  of  sentiment  and  sensation.  Their 
griefs  are  transient.  Those  numberless  afflictions,  which  render 
it  doubtful  whether  Heaven  has  given  life  to  us  in  mercy  or  in 
wrath,  are  less  felt,  and  sooner  forgotten,  with  them.  In  general, 
their  existence  appears  to  pai'ticipate  more  of  sensation  than  re- 
flection. To  this  must  be  ascribed  their  disposition  to  sleep  when 
abstracted  from  their  diversions  and  unemployed  in  labor.  An 
animal  whose  body  is  at  rest,  and  who  does  not  reflect,  must 
be  disposed  to  sleep,  of  course.  Comparing  them  by  their  facul- 
ties of  memory,  reason,  and  imagination,  it  appears  to  me  that  in 
memory  they  are  equal  to  the  whites ;  in  reason  much  inferior,  as 
I  think  one  could  scarcely  be  found  capable  of  tracing  and  com- 
prehending the  investigations  of  Euclid ;  and  that  in  imagination 
they  are  dull,  tasteless,  and  anomalous." — Jefferson's  Works,  Vol. 
VIII. ,  page  380.  Notes  on  Virginia;  written  in  1782. 


"  The  West  Indies  offer  a  more  probable  and  practicable  retreat 
for  the  negroes.  Inhabited  already  by  a  people  of  their  own  race 
and  color ;  climates  congenial  with  their  natural  constitution ;  in- 
sulated from  the  other  descriptions  of  men ;  nature  seems  to  have 
formed  these  islands  to  become  the  receptacle  of  the  blacks  trans- 
planted into  this  hemisphere.  Whether  we  could  obtain  from  the 
European  sovereigns  of  those  islands  leave  to  send  thither  the  per- 
sons under  consideration,  I  cannot  say ;  but  I  think  it  more  proba- 
ble than  the  former  propositions,  because  of  their  being  already 
inhabited  more  or  less  by  the  same  race.  .  .  .  Africa  would 
offer  a  last  and  undoubted  resort,.if  all  others  more  desirable 
should  fail."  —  Jefferson's  Works,  Vol.  IV.,  page  421.  Letter  to 
Gov.  Monroe,  Nov.  24,  1801. 


"  You  have  asked  my  opinion  on  the  proposition  of  Mrs.  Mif- 
flin,  to  take  measures  for  procuring,  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  an 
establishment  to  which  the  people  of  color  of  these  States  might, 
from  time  to  time,  be  colonized,  under  the  auspices  of  different 
governments.  Having  long  ago  made  up  my  mind  on  this  sub- 
ject, I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  I  always  thought  it  the 


176  AMERICAN   WRITERS  ON  THE  NEGRO. 

most  desirable  measure  which  could  be  adopted  for  gradually 
drawing  off  this  part  of  our  population  most  advantageously  for 
themselves  as  well  as  for  us.  Going  from  a  country  possessing  all 
the  useful  arts,  they  might  be  the  means  of  transplanting  them 
among  the  inhabitants  of  Africa,  and  would  thus  carry  back  to 
the  country  of  their  origin  the  seeds  of  civilization,  which  might  ren- 
der their  sojournment  and  sufferings  here  a  blessing  in  the  end  to 
that  country."  —  Jefferson's  Works,  Vol.  V.,  page  563.  Letter  to 
John  Lynch,  January  21,  1811. 


'  I  concur  entirely  in  your  leading  principles  of  gradual  eman- 
cipation, of  establishment  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  and  the  patron- 
age of  our  nation  until  the  emigrants  shall  be  able  to  protect 
themselves.  The  subordinate  details  might  be  easily  arranged. 
But  the  bare  proposition  of  purchase  by  the  United  States  gener- 
ally would  excite  infinite  indignation  in  all  the  States  north  of 
Maryland.  The  sacrifice  must  fall  on  the  States  alone  which  hold 
them ;  and  the  difficult  question  will  be  how  to  lessen  this  so  as  to 
reconcile  our  fellow-citizens  to  it.  Personally  I  am  ready  and 
desirous  to  make  any  sacrifice  which  shall  ensure  their  gradual 
but  complete  retirement  from  the  State,  and  effectually,  at  the 
same  time,  establish  them  elsewhere  in  freedom  and  safety.  But 
I  have  not  perceived  the  growth  of  this  disposition  in  the  rising 
generation,  of  Avhich  I  once  had  sanguine  hopes.  No  symptoms 
inform  me  that  it  will  take  place  in  my  day.  I  leave  it,  therefore, 
to  time,  and  not  at  all  without  hope  that  the  day  will  come,  equally 
desirable  and  welcome  to  us  as  to  them."  —  Jefferson's  Works,  Vol. 
VII.,  page  57.  Letter  to  Dr.  Thomas  Humphreys,  February  8,  1817. 


"The  bill  on  the  subject  of  slaves  was  a  mere  digest  of  the 
existing  laws  respecting  them,  without  any  intimation  of  a  plan 
for  a  future  and  general  emancipation.  It  was  thought  better  that 
this  should  be  kept  back,  and  attempted  only  by  way  of  amend- 
ment, whenever  the  bill  should  be  brought  on.  The  principles 
of  the  amendment,  however,  were  agreed  on ;  that  is  to  say,  the 
freedom  of  all  born  after  a  certain  day,  and  deportation  at  a 
proper  age.  But  it  was  found  that  the  public  mind  would  not  yet 
bear  the  proposition  ;  nor  will  it  bear  it  even  at  this  day.  Yet  the 


AMERICAN   WRITERS   ON  THE  NEGRO.  177 

day  is  not  distant  when  it  must  bear  and  adopt  it,  or  worse  will 
follow.  NOTHING  is  MORE  CERTAINLY  WRITTEN  IN  THE  BOOK  OF 

FATE  THAN  THAT  THESE  PEOPLE  ARE  TO  BE  FREE  ;  NOR  IS  IT 
LESS  CERTAIN  THAT  THE  TWO  RACES,  EQUALLY  FREE,  CA.NNOT 

LIVE  IN  THE  SAME  GOVERNMENT.  Nature,  habit,  opinion,  have 
drawn  indelible  lines  of  distinction  between  them.  It  is  still  in 
our  power  to  direct  the  process  of  emancipation  and  deportation, 
peaceably,  and  in  such  slow  degree,  as  that  the  evil  will  wear  off 
insensibly,  and  their  place  be,  pari  passu,  filled  up  by  free  white 
laborers."  —  Jefferson's  Works,  Vol.  I,, page  48.  Autobiography; 
written  in  1821. 


"  The  article  on  the  African  colonization  of  the  people  of  color, 
to  which  you  invite  my  attention,  I  have  read  with  great  consid- 
eration. It  is  indeed  a  fine  one,  and  will  do  much  good.  I  learn 
from  it  more,  too,  than  I  had  before  known,  of  the  degree  of 
success  and  promise  of  that  colony.  In  the  disposition  of  this  un- 
fortunate people,  there  are  two  rational  objects  to  be  distinctly 
kept  in  view.  First :  the  establishment  of  a  colony  on  the  coast 
of  Africa,  which  may  introduce  among  the  aborigines  the  arts  of 
cultivated  life,  and  the  blessings  of  civilization  and  science.  By 
doing  this,  we  may  make  to  them  some  retribution  for  the  long 
course  of  injuries  we  have  been  committing  on  their  population. 
.  .  .  The  second  object,  and  the  most  interesting  to  us,  as 
coming  home  to  our  physical  and  moral  characters,  to  our  happi- 
ness and  safety,  is  to  provide  an  asylum  to  which  we  can,  by  de- 
grees, send  the  whole  of  that  population  from  among  us,  and  es- 
tablish them,  under  our  patronage  and  protection,  as  a  separate, 
free,  and  independent  people,  in  some  country  and  climate  friendly 
to  human  life  and  happiness.  ...  I  do  not  go  into  all  the 
details  of  the  burdens  and  benefits  of  this  operation.  And  who 
could  estimate  its  blessed  effects  ?  I  leave  this  to  those  who  will 
live  to  see  their  accomplishment,  and  to  enjoy  a  beatitude  forbid- 
den to  my  age.  But  I  leave  it  with  this  admonition,  to  rise  and  be 
doing." — Jefferson's  Works,  Vol.  VII.,  page  332.  Letter  to  Jared 
Sparks,  February  4,  1824. 


"  The  proverbs  of  Theognis,  like  those  of  Solomon,  are  ob- 


178  AMERICAN  WRITERS   ON  THE  NEGRO. 

serrations  on  human  nature,  ordinary  life,  and  civil  society,  with 
moral  reflections  on  the  facts.  I  quote  him  as  a  witness  of  the 
fact  that  there  is  as  much  difference  in  the  races  of  men  as  in  the 
breeds  of  sheep,  and  as  a  sharp  reprover  and  censurer  of  the  sor- 
did, mercenary  practice  of  disgracing  birth  by  preferring  gold  to 
it.  Surely  no  authority  can  be  more  expressly  in  point  to  prove 
the  existence  of  inequalities,  not  of  rights,  but  of  moral,  intellect- 
ual, and  physical  inequalities  in  families,  descendants,  and  gen- 
erations." —  John  Adams.  Correspondence  with  Jefferson,  Nov.  15, 
1813. 


"Inequalities  of  mind  and  body  are  so  established  by  God  Al- 
mighty, in  his  constitution  of  human  nature,  that  no  art  or  policy 
can  ever  plane  them  down  to  a  common  level."  —  John  Adams. 
Correspondence  with  Jefferson. 


"  I  have  never  read  reasoning  more  absurd,  sophistry  more 
gross,  in  proof  of  the  Athanasian  creed,  or  Transubstantiation, 
than  the  subtle  labors  of  Helvetius  and  Rousseau,  to  demonstrate 
the  natural  equality  of  mankind.  The  golden  rule,  '  Do  as  you 
would  be  done  by,'  is  all  the  equality  that  can  be  supported  or  de- 
fended by  reason,  or  reconciled  to  common  sense."  —  John  Adams. 
Correspondence  with  Jefferson. 


"It  is  only  as  immortal  beings  that  all  mankind  can,  in  any 
sense,  be  said  to  be  born  equal ;  and  when  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence affirms,  as  a  self-evident  truth,  that  all  men  are  born 
equal,  it  is  precisely  the  same  as  if  the  affirmation  had  been  that 
all  men  are  born  with  immortal  souls." — John  Quincy  Adams. 
Letter  to  citizens  of  Bangor,  Maine,  July  4,  1843. 


"  I  would  not  dwell  with  any  particular  emphasis  upon  the  sen- 
timent, which  I  nevertheless  entertain,  with  respect  to  the  great 
diversity  in  the  races  of  men .  I  do  not  know  how  far,  in  that  re- 
spect, I  might  not  encroach  on  those  mysteries  of  Providenca 
•which,  while  I  adore,  I  may  not  comprehend."  —  Daniel  Webster 


AMERICAN   WRITERS   ON   THE   NEGRO.  179 

"  In  my  observations  upon  slavery  as  it  existed  in  this  country, 
and  as  it  now  exists,  I  have  expressed  no  opinion  of  the  mode  of 
its  extinguishment  or  melioration.  I  will  say,  however,  though 
I  have  nothing  to  propose,  because  I  do  not  deem  myself  so  com- 
petent as  other  gentlemen  to  take  any  lead  on  this  subject,  that 
if  any  gentleman  from  the  South  shall  propose  a  scheme  to  be 
carried  on  by  this  government  upon  a  large  scale,  for  the  trans- 
portation of  the  colored  people  to  any  colony  or  any  place  in  the 
world,  I  should  be  quite  disposed  to  incur  almost  any  degree  of 
expense  to  accomplish  that  object." — Webster's  Works,  Vol.  V., 
page  364. 


"  It  is  a  question  of  races,  involving  consequences  which  go  to 
the  destruction  of  one  or  the  other.  This  was  seen  fifty  years 
ago,  and  the  wisdom  of  Virginia  balked  at  it  then.  It  seems  to 
be  above  human  reason  now.  But  there  is  a  wisdom  above  hu- 
man, and  to  that  we  must  look.  In  the  mean  time  do  not  extend 
the  evil." —  Thomas  Hart  Benton. 


"  Of  the  utility  of  a  total  separation  of  the  two  incongruous  por- 
tions of  our  population  (supposing  it  to  be  practicable)  none  have 
ever  doubted.  The  mode  of  accomplishing  that  desirable  object 
has  alone  divided  public  opinion.  Colonization  in  Hayti  for  a 
time  had  its  partisans.  Without  throwing  any  impediments  in 
the  way  of  executing  that  scheme,  the  American  Colonization 
Society  has  steadily  adhered  to  its  own.  The  Haytien  project  has 
passed  away.  Colonization  beyond  the  Stony  Mountains  has 
sometimes  been  proposed ;  but  it  would  be  attended  with  an  ex- 
pense and  difficulties  far  surpassing  the  African  project,  whilst 
it  would  not  unite  the  same  animating  motives."  —  Henry  Clay. 
Speech  in  the  House  of  Bepresentatives,  1827. 


"  How  natural  has  it  been  to  assume  that  the  motive  of  those 
who  have  protested  against  the  extension  of  slavery  was  an  un- 
natural sympathy  with  the  negro,  instead  of  what  it  always  has 
really  been  —  concern  for  the  welfare  of  the  white  man,''—  Wil- 
liam H.  Reward.  Speech  at  Detroit,  September  4,  186Q. 


180  AMERICAN  WR1TEES   ON  THE  NEGRO. 

"  The  great  fact  is  now  fully  realized  that  the  African  race  here 
is  a  foreign  and  feeble  element,  like  the  Indians,  incapable  of  as- 
similation, .  .  .  and  that  it  is  a  pitiful  exotic  unwisely  and 
unnecessarily  transplanted  into  our  fields,  and  which  it  is  un- 
profitable to  cultivate  at  the  cost  of  the  desolation  of  the  native 
vineyard."  —  William  H.  Seward.  Speech  at  Detroit,  September 
4,  1860. 


"  I  have  said  that  I  do  not  understand  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence to  mean  that  all  men  are  created  equal  in  all  respects. 
Certainly  the  negro  is  not  our  equal  in  color,  —  perhaps  not  in 
many  other  respects.  ...  I  did  not  at  any  time  say  I  was  in 
favor  of  negro  suffrage.  Twice,  —  once  substantially,  and  once 
expressly,  —  I  declared  against  it.  ...  I  am  not  in  favor  of 
negro  citizenship."  —  Abraham  Lincoln.  Debates  with  Douglas,  in 
Illinois,  1858. 


"  I  am  not,  and  never  have  been,  in  favor  of  making  voters  or 
jurors  of  negroes,  nor  of  qualifying  them  to  hold  office,  nor  to 
intermarry  with  whites ;  and  I  will  say  further,  in  addition  to  this, 
that  there  is  a  physical  difference  between  the  black  and  white 
races,  which  I  believe  will  forever  forbid  the  two  races  living  to- 
gether on  terms  of  social  and  political  equality."  —  Abraham  Lin- 
coln. Debates  with  Douglas  in  Illinois,  1858. 


"  I  will,  to  the  very  last,  stand  by  the  law  of  the  State  which 
forbids  the  marrying  of  white  people  with  negroes."  —  Abraham 
Lincoln.  Speech  at  Columbus,  Ohio,  September,  1859. 


"  Why  should  not  the  people  of  your  race  be  colonized  ?  Why 
should  they  not  leave  this  country  ?  This  is,  perhaps,  the  first 
question  for  consideration.  You  and  we  are  a  different  race. 
We  have  between  us  a  broader  difference  than  exists  between 
almost  any  other  two  races.  Whether  it  is  right  or  wrong, 
I  need  not  discuss ;  but  this  physical  difference  is  a  great  disad- 
vantage to  us  both,  as  I  think  your  race  suffers  greatly,  many 


AMERICAN   WRITERS   ON  THE  NEGRO.  181 

of  them  by  living  with  us,  while  ours  suffer  from  your  pi'esence. 
In  a  word,  we  suffer  on  each  side.  If  this  is  admitted,  it  shows 
a  reason  why  we  should  be  separated.  You,  here,  are  freemen, 
I  suppose.  Perhaps  you  have  long  been  free,  or  all  your  lives. 
Your  race  are  suffering,  in  my  opinion,  the  greatest  wrong 
inflicted  on  any  people.  But  even  when  you  cease  to  be 
slaves,  you  are  yet  far  removed  from  being  placed  on  an  -— 
equality  with  the  white  race.  You  are  still  cut  off  from  many 
of  the  advantages  which  are  enjoyed  by  the  other  race.  The 
aspiration  of  man  is  to  enjoy  equality  with  the  best  when  free ; 
but  on  this  broad  continent  not  a  single  man  of  your  race  is  made 
the  equal  of  ours.  Go  where  you  are  treated  the  best,  and  the 
ban  is  still  upon  you.  I  do  not  propose  to  discuss  this,  but  to 
present  it  as  a  fact  with  which  we  have  to  deal.  I  cannot  alter  it 
if  I  would.  It  is  a  fact  about  which  we  all  think  and  feel  alike. 
We  look  to  our  conditions  owing  to  the  existence  of  the  races  on 
this  continent.  I  need  not  recount  to  you  the  effects  upon  white 
men  growing  out  of  the  institution  of  slavery.  I  believe  in  its 
general  evil  effects  upon  the  white  race.  See  our  present  condi- 
tion. The  country  is  engaged  in  war.  Our  white  men  are  cut-^— 
ting  each  other's  throats,  none  knowing  how  far  their  frenzy  may 
extend ;  and  then  consider  what  we  know  to  be  the  truth.  But 
for  your  race  among  us,  there  could  not  be  a  war,  although  many 
men  engaged  on  either  side  do  not  care  for  you  one  way  or  the 
other.  Nevertheless,  I  repeat,  without  the  institution  of  slavery, 
and  the  colored  race  as  a  basis,  the  war  could  not  have  had  an 
existence.  It  is  better  for  us  both,  therefore,  to  be  separated.  I 
know  that  there  are  free  men  among  you  who,  even  if  they  could 
better  their  condition,  are  not  as  much  inclined  to  go  out  of  the 
country  as  those  who,  being  slaves,  could  obtain  their  freedom  on 
this  condition.  I  suppose  one  of  the  principal  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  colonization  is,  that  the  free  colored  man  cannot  see  that 
his  comfort  would  be  advanced  by  it.  You  may  believe  you  can 
live  in  Washington,  or  elsewhere  in  the  United  States,  the  re- 
mainder of  your  lives,  perhaps  more  comfortably  than  you  could 
in  any  foreign  country.  Hence  you  may  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  you  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  idea  of  going  to  a  foreign 
country.  This  (I  speak  in  no  unkind  sense)  is  an  extremely  sel- 
fish view  of  the  case.  But  you  ought  to  do  something  to  help 
those  who  are  not  so  fortunate  as  yourselves.  .  .  .  For  the 
16 


182  AMERICAN  WRITERS  ON  TBS  NEGRO. 

sake  of  your  race  you  should  sacrifice  something  of  your  present 
comfort,  for  the  purpose  of  being  as  grand  in  that  respect  as  tho 
white  people.  It  is  a  cheering  thought  throughout  life,  that  some- 
thing can  be  done  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  those  who  have 
been  subject  to  the  hard  usages  of  the  world.  It  is  difficult  to 
make  a  man  miserable  while  he  feels  that  he  is  worthy  of  himself, 
and  claims  kindred  with  the  great  God  who  made  him !  In  the 
American  revolutionary  war,  sacrifices  were  made  by  men  en- 
gaged in  it,  but  they  were  cheered  by  the  future.  General  Wash- 
ington himself  endured  greater  physical  hardships  than  if  he  had 
remained  a  British  subject;  yet  he  was  a  happy  man,  because  he 
was  engaged  in  benefiting  his  race,  and  in  doing  something  for 
the  children  of  his  neighbors,  having  none  of  his  own."  —  Abraham 
Lincoln.  Address  to  a  Deputation  of  Negroes,  June,  1862. 


"  I  believe  this  government  was  made  by  white  men,  for  the 
benefit  of  white  men  and  their  posterity  forever ;  and  I  am  in 
favor  of  confining  citizenship  to  white  men, — men  of  European 
birth  and  descent,  instead  of  conferring  it  upon  negroes,  Indians, 
and  other  inferior  races."  —  Stephen  A.  Douglas.  Debates  with 
Lincoln  in  Illinois,  1858. 


"  All  the  early  patriots  of  the  South  —  Washington,  Jefferson, 
Madison,  Monroe,  Jackson,  Clay,  and  others  —  were  the  advo- 
cates of  emancipation  and  colonization.  The  patriots  of  the  North 
concurred  in  the  design.  Is  the  faction  now  opposing  it  patriotic 
or  philanthropic  ?  Are  they  not  rather,  like  Calhoun,  working 
the  negro  question  to  accomplish  schemes  of  selfish  ambition,  and, 
after  his  method,  making  a  balance  of  power  party  of  a  phalanx 
of  deluded  fanatics,  keeping  the  Union  and  the  public  peace  per- 
petually in  danger,  and  seeking  power  in  the  government  through 
its  distractions  ?  The  author  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
and  his  associates  declared  equal  rights  impracticable  in  society 
constituted  of  masses  of  different  races.  De  Tocqueville,  the 
most  profound  writer  of  the  Old  World  on  American  institutions, 
predicts  the  extermination  of  the  blacks,  if  it  is  attempted  to  con- 
fer such  rights  on  them  in  the  United  States.  It  is  obvious  that 
an  election  would  be  a  mockery  in  a  community  wherein  there 


AMERICAN  WRITERS  ON  THE  NEGRO.  183 

could  be  no  other  than  black  and  white  parties.  In  siuh  commu- 
nities, reason  and  experience  show  that  one  or  the  other  race 
must  be  the  dominant  race,  and  that  democracy  is  impossible. 
This  is  not  less  obvious  to  the  Phillips  school  than  it  is  to  the  Cal- 
houn  school,  who  concur  in  opposing  the  policy  of  Mr.  Jefferson, 
adopted  by  the  president,  intended  to  effectuate  the  design  of  our 
fathers  to  establish  popular  government.  They  concur  in  press- 
ing here  the  antagonism  of  races,  and  only  differ  in  looking  to 
different  races  to  give  them  power.  The  result  of  this  antagonism, 
so  far  as  popular  government  is  concerned,  would  be  the  same  if 
either  could  succeed  in  their  schemes ;  and  you  would  scarcely 
have  much  preference  between  being  governed  by  Jeff.  Davis,  as 
the  leader  of  the  Slave  Power,  and  Wendell  Phillips,  as  the 
leader  of  the  -enfranchised  blacks.  But  neither  can  succeed.  Even 
the  Calhoun  scheme,  matured  through  so  many  years  of  intrigue 
by  men  versed  in  public  affairs,  and  attended  with  a  temporary 
success,  is  a  failure  as  a  governing  contrivance,  though  potent 
still  to  spread  ruin  widely  through  the  land,  and  especially 
to  desolate  the  homes  of  his  deluded  followers.  The  Phillips 
scheme  is  the  dream  of  visionaries  wholly  unskilled  in  govern- 
ment, and  will  be  a  failure  from  the  start.  He  may,  in  turn, 
make  victims  of  the  negroes,  as  Calhoun  has  of  their  masters. 
But  I  think  not.  They  are  not  ambitious  of  ruling  white  men, 
and  will,  I  believe,  be  contented  to  set  up  for  themselves,  in  some 
neighboring  and  congenial  clime,  on  the  plan  of  Jefferson  and 
Lincoln."  —  Montgomery  Blair.  Speech  at  Concord,  N.  H.,  June  17, 
1863. 


"The  problem  before  us  is  the  practical  one  of  dealing  with  the 
relations  of  masses  of  two  different  races  in  the  same  community. 
The  calamities  now  upon  us  have  been  brought  about,  as  I  have 
already  said,  not  by  the  grievances  of  the  class  claiming  property 
in  slaves,  but  by  the  jealousy  of  caste  awakened  by  the  secession- 
ists in  the  non-slaveholders.  In  considering  the  means  of  securing 
the  peace  of  the  country  hereafter,  it  is,  therefore,  this  jealousy 
of  race  which  is  chiefly  to  be  considered.  Emancipation  alone 
would  not  remove  it.  It  was  by  proclaiming  to  the  laboring 
whites,  who  fill  the  armies  of  rebellion,  that  the  election  of  Mr. 
Lincoln  involved  emancipation,  equality  of  the  negroes  with  them 


184  AMERICAN   WRITERS   ON  THE  N3GRO. 

and  consequently  amalgamation,  that  'their  jealousy  was  stimu- 
lated to  the  fighting  point.  Nor  is  this  jealousy  the  fruit  of  mere 
ignorance  and  bad  passion,  as  some  suppose,  or  confined  to  the 
white  people  of  the  South.  On  the  contrary,  it  belongs  to  all 
races,  and,  like  all  popular  instincts,  proceeds  from  the  highest 
wisdom.  It  is,  in  fact,  the  instinct  of  self-preservation  which 
revolts  at  hybridism.  Nor  does  this  instinct  militate  against  the 
natural  law,  that  all  men  are  created  equal,  if  another  law  of 
nature,  equally  obvious,  is  obeyed.  We  have  but  to  restore  the 
subject  race  to  the  same,  or  to  a  region  similar  to  that  from  which 
it  was  brought  by  violence,  to  make  it  operative  ;  and  such  a  sep- 
aration of  races  was  the  condition  which  the  immortal  author  of 
the  Declaration  himself  declared  to  be  indispensable  to  give  it 
practical  effect.  A  theorist,  not  living  in  a  community  where 
diverse  races  are  brought  in  contact  in  masses,  may  stifle  the  voice 
'  of  nature  in  his  own  bosom,  and,  from  a  determination  to  live  up 
to  a  mistaken  view  of  the  doctrine,  go  so  far  as  to  extend  social 
intercourse  to  individuals  of  the  subject  race.  But  few  even  of 
such  persons  would  pursue  their  theories  so  far  as  amalgamation 
and  other  legitimate  consequences  of  their  logic."  —  Montgomery 
Blair.  Letter  read  at  the  Cooper  Institute,  N.  Y.,  March  6,  1863. 

"White  men  have  for  centuries  been  accustomed   to  vote. 
They  have  borne  all  the  responsibilities  and  discharged  all  the 
duties  of  freemen  among  freemen ;  and  it  is  a  very  different  thing 
to  take  away  from  a  freeman  a  privilege  long  exercised  by  him    i 
and.  by  his  ancestors,  from  what  it  is  to  confer  one  never  before  \ 
enjoyed  upon  ignorant,  half-civilized  Africans  just  released  from 
slavery.     Three  generations  back  many  of  them  were  cannibals    | 
and   savages   of  the   lowest    type   of  human    kind      The  only 
civilization  they  have  is  that  which  they  have  received  during 
their  slavery  in  America.     To  confer  this  great  privilege  upon  the    j 
more  enlightened  negroes  might  tend  to  elevate  the  mass  in  the    ! 
end.     But  to  confer  it  now  upon  their  ignorant  hordes  can  only    a 
degrade  the  ballot  and  the  republican  institutions  which  rest  upon   | 
it.    No  answer  to  this  view  has  ever  been  given,  no  answer  can 
be  given,  by  the  friends  of  universal  negro  suffrage,  except  this :   | 
"  The  ignorant  foreigner  is  allowed  to  vote,  why  not  let  the  igno- 
rant negro  vote  ?    Thus  to  compare  the  civilized  European,  accus- 


AMERICAN  WRITERS   ON  THE  NEGRO.  185 

tomed  to  free  labor,  to  self-support,  and  self-government,  to  all 
the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  a  freedman,  and  who  withal, 
before  he  is  allowed  to  vote  in  most  of  the  States,  must  appear 
in  open  court,  and,  after  five  years'  residence,  prove  by  the  testi- 
mony of  two  citizens  a  good  moral  character  and  that  he  is  well 
disposed  towards  the  government  and  institutions  of  the  United 
States,  — to  compare  him  with  the  poor  degraded  mass  of  Afri- 
cans, plantation  slaves  just  set  free,  is  an  atrocious  libel  upon  our- 
selves, upon  our  ancestors,  upon  the  results  of  Christian  civiliza- 
tion, and  upon  that  Caucasian  race  which  for  thousands  of  years 
has  ruled  the  world.  .  .  .  Why  press  this  negro  domination 
over  the  whites  of  the  South  ?  What  reason  can  you  give  ?  The 
answer  is,  because  the  negroes  were  loyal  and  the  whites  dis- 
loyal. Let  us  examine  this  bold  assertion.  Is  it  true?  Were  the 
negroes  loyal  during  the  rebellion?  Recall  the  facts.  Who  does 
not  remember  that  at  least  three-fourths  of  all  the  negroes  in 
those  States  during  the  whole  war1  did  all  in  their  power  to  sustain 
the  rebel  cause  ?  They  fed  their  armies ;  they  dug  their  trenches ; 
they  built  their  fortifications ;  they  fed  their  women  and  children. 
There  were  no  insurrections,  no  uprisings,  no  effort  of  any  kind 
anywhere  outside  the  lines  of  our  armies  on  the  part  of  the  ne- 
groes to  aid  the  Union  cause.  In  whole  districts,  in  whole  States 
even,  where  all  the  able-bodied  white  men  were  conscripted  into 
the  rebel  army,  the  great  mass  of  negroes,  of  whose  loyalty  you 
boast,  under  the  control  of  women,  decrepit  old  men  and  boys, 
did  all  they  were  capable  of  to  aid  the  rebellion."  —  James  R.  Doo- 
little.  Speech  in  the  Senate,  January  23,  1868. 


"  In  the  name  of  constitutional  liberty ;  in  the  name  of  our 
great  ancestors  who  laid  the  foundations  of  this  government  to  se- 
cure the  liberty  for  themselves  and  for  us ;  in  the  name  of  all  who 
love  that  liberty,  who  are  ready  to  struggle  and  if  need  be  to  die 
rather  than  allow  it  to  be  overthrown ;  in  the  name  of  the  coming 
generations  and  that  race  to  which  we  belong  and  which  has  given 
to  the  world  all  its  civilization,  —  I  do  arraign  and  impeach  the  rad- 
ical policy  of  the  present  Congress  of  high  crimes  and  misdemean- 
ors. At  the  bar  of  the  American  people,  in  the  presence  of  high 
Heaven  and  before  the  civilized  world,  I  impeach  it,  first,  as  a  crime 
against  the  laws  of  nature  which  God  the  Almighty  has  stamped 
16* 


186  AMERICAN  WRITERS  ON  THE  NEGRO. 

upon  the  races  of  mankind,  because  it  attempts  to  force  a  politi- 
cal and  social  and  unnatural  equality  betweeen  the  African  and 
the  Caucasian,  — between  an  alien,  inferior,  and  exotic  race  from 
the  tropics,  with  the  highest  type  of  the  human  race  in  the  home 
of  the  latter  in  the  temperate  zone.  Second :  I  impeach  it  as  a 
crime  against  civilization,  because  it  would  by  force  wrench  the 
government  out  of  the  hands  of  the  civilized  white  race  in  ten 
States  of  this  Union,  to  place  it  in  the  hands  of  the  half-civilized 
African.  Third  :  I  impeach  it  as  a  crime  against  the  constitution, 
because  it  tramples  down  the  rights  of  the  States  to  fix  for  them- 
selves the  qualifications  of  their  own  voters,  —  a  right  without 
which  a  State  ceases  to  be  republican  at  all.  Fourth  :  I  impeach 
it  as  a  crime  against  the  constitution  and  against  national  faith, 
because  it  annuls  the  pardons  constitutionally  granted  to  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  the  most  intelligent  white  men  of  the  South,  and 
in  open,  palpable  violation  of  the  constitution,  disfranchises  them. 
Fifth :  I  impeach  it  as  a  crime  against  the  existence  of  ten  States 
of  the  Union  and  the  liberties  of  eight  millions  of  people,  because 
in  express  terms  it  annuls  all  civil  government,  by  which  alone 
those  liberties  may  be  secured,  and  places  them  under  an  absolute 
military  despotism.  Sixth :  I  impeach  it  as  a  crime  against  hu- 
manity, tending  to  produce  a  war  of  races,  to  the  utter  destruction 
of  one  or  both,  — a  result  which  cannot  be  prevented  except  by  a 
large  standing  army,  which  neither  resources  will  bear  nor  our 
liabilities  long  survive.  Seventh  :  I  impeach  it  as  an  utter  aban- 
donment of  the  purpose  for  which  the  war  was  prosecuted,  of  the 
idea  upon  which  we  fought  and  mastered  a  rebellion." — James 
£.  Doolittle.  Speech  at  Hartford,  Conn.,  March  11,  1868. 


"  I  know  it  is  said  that  the  objection  which  is  felt  on  the  part  of 
the  white  population  of  this  country  to  living  side  by  side  in  social 
and  civil  equality  with  the  negro  race  is  all  a  mere  prejudice  of 
caste.  But  its  foundations  are  laid  deeper  than  mere  prejudice. 
It  is  an  instinct  of  our  nature.  Men  may  theorize  on  the  condi- 
tion of  the  two  races  living  together,  but  the  thing  is  impossible  ; 
the  instincts  of  both  parties  are  against  it."  —  Senator  Loolittle, 
of  Wisconsin. 


AMERICAN  WRITERS   ON  THE  NEGRO.  187 

"  Of  all  the  delusions  I  have  ever  known,  the  idea  of  political 
equality  between  the  black  and  white  races  seems  to  me  the  great- 
est. For  more  than  four  thousand  years  the  history  of  this  world 
has  been  written,  and  in  all  that  time  there  is  not  one  recorded 
annal  of  a  civilized  negro  government;  there  is  not  one  instance 
of  political  equality  between  the  two  races  that  has  not  proved 
injurious  to  both ;  and  yet  it  is  proposed  to  confer  upon  an  inferior 
race  the  dominion  over  one-third  of  the  republic,  and  to  make  it 
a  balance  of  power  that,  nine  times  out  of  ten,  would,  for  that 
reason,  control  the  whole  country.  There  can  be  but  one  end  to 
this  scheme,  if  it  be  much  longer  prosecuted.  It  is  impossible 
that  the  race  to  which  we  belong  can  submit  to  negro  domination ; 
it  is  impossible  that  so  inferior  a  race  as  the  negro  can  compete 
with  the  white  man  in  the  business,  much  less  the  politics,  of  the 
country.  The  extermination  of  the  negro,  or  his  expulsion  from 
this  country,  must  be  the  inevitable  result  of  the  Radical  policy, 
if  persisted  in.  But  before  that  happens,  what  untold  evils  may 
await  us,  what  anarchy,  what  confusion,  what  impoverishment, 
what  distress !  Worse  than  Mexico,  worse  than  the  South  Ameri- 
can Republics,  will  be  the  condition  of  a  large  portion  of  this 
country,  if  that  policy  prevails.  And  here  let  me  caution  you, 
my  friends,  that  the  question  of  negro  suffrage  was  not  settled  by 
your  votes  last  October.  It  is  true  that  you  voted  it  down  in 
Ohio,  but  it  is  equally  true  that  what  you  refuse  to  permit  here 
you  are  asked  to  impose  upon  others.  It  is  equally  true  that  what 
you  have  solemnly  condemned,  a  Radical  Congress  may  impose 
upon  you  in  spite  of  your  condemnation,  — impose  upon  you  by 
an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  ratified 
by  other  States,  though  rejected  by  Ohio.  If  you  would  guard 
against  negro  suffrage,  if  you  would  guard  against  political 
equality  with  the  negro,  you  must  not  be  satisfied  with  sending  its 
opponents  to  the  Legislature  of  your  own  State,  but  you  must 
keep  its  advocates  out  of  the  halls  of  Congress."  —  Senator  Thur- 
man,  of  Ohio.  Speech  at  Mansfield,  Jan.  21,  1868. 


"  Whatever  may  have  been  the  sympathies  of  the  North  on  the 
question  of  freedom  from  slavery,  you  need  not  think  they  will  be 
with  the  negro  in  this  horrible  contest  now  imminent;  for  when 
the  northern  man  sees  the  mother  and  children  escaping  from  the 


188  AMERICAN  WRITERS  ON  THE  NEGRO. 

burning  home  that  has  sheltered  and  protected  them ;  when  he 
hears  the  screams  of  beauty  and  innocence  in  the  flight  from 
pursuing  lust,  if  ever  he  venerated  a  mother,  or  loved  a  sister  or 
wife,  his  heart  and  hand  will  be  for  the  pale-faced  woman  and 
child  of  his  own  race.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  sympathies 
of  the  North  for  the  negro  in  the  claim  made  on  his  behalf  for 
civil  rights,  just  and  generous  men  will  turn  with  horror  from  the 
congressional  policy  that  places  the  white  race  under  the  power 
and  government  of  the  negroes,  and  seeks  to  establish  negro 
States  in  the  Union.  .  .  .  You  have  taken  the  robes  of  polit- 
ical power  off  the  shoulders  of  white  men,  and  you  have  put 
them  upon  the  shoulders  of  negroes.  Gentlemen  may  moralize 
in  solemn  tones,  as  if  they  came  from  the  tomb,  about  the  gal- 
lantry and  distinguished  services  of  the  negroes  in  the  war.  I 
can  tell  you  that  with  all  the  political  and  party  ambition  you 
have,  with  all  the  party  power  you  have,  you  have  not  power  to 
take  the  garlands  from  the  brows  of  the  white  soldiers  and  put 
them  on  the  heads  of  the  negroes.  You  cannot  do  it.  What  is 
right  will  stand.  And  I  can  tell  you  that  all  over  this  land,  in 
every  neighborhood,  there  are  the  soldiers  that  have  returned 
home,  who  will  vindicate  and  defend  their  own  honor  against  this 
effort  to  appropriate  the  glory  of  the  white  '  boys '  to  the  negroes. 
There  was  not  a  battle  in  the  war  that  was  won  by  the  negroes. 
There  is  not  a  point  that  was  carried  by  them.  .  .  .  My  col- 
league has  spoken  of  a  column, — the  column  of  congressional 
reconstruction,  —  and  has  said  that  '  it  is  not  hewn  of  a  single 
stone,  but  is  composed  of  many  blocks.'  I  think  he  is  right.  Its 
foundation  is  the  hard  flint-stone  of  military  rule,  brought  from  the 
quarries  of  Austria,  and  upon  that  foundation  rests  the  block  from 
Africa,  and  it  is  thence  earned  to  its  topmost  point  with  fragments 
of  our  broken  institutions.  That  column  will  not  stand.  It  will 
fall,  and  its  architects  will  be  crushed  beneath  its  ruins.  In  its 
stead  the  people  will  uphold  thirty-seven  stately  and  beautiful 
columns,  pure  and  white  as  Parian  marble,  upon  which  shall  rest 
forever  the  grand  structure  of  the  American  Union." — Thomas 
A.  Hendricks.  Speech  in  the  Senate,  February,  1868. 


"  I  lay  down  the  propositions  that  the  white  and  black  races 
thrive  best  apart ;  that  a  commingling  of  these  races  is  a  detri- 


AMERICAN  WRITERS   ON  THE  NEGRO.  189 

ment  to  both ;  that  it  does  not  elevate  the  black,  and  it  onl}  de- 
presses the  white ;  that  the  history  of  this  continent,  especially  in 
Hispano-America,  shows  that  stable,  civil  order  and  government 
are  impossible  with  such  a  population.  .  .  .  Equality  is  a  con- 
dition which  is  self-protective,  wanting  nothing,  asking  nothing, 
able  to  take  care  of  itself.  It  is  an  absurdity  to  say  that  two  races, 
so  dissimilar  as  black  and  white,  of  different  origin,  of  unequal 
capacity,  can  succeed  in  the  same  society  when  placed  in  competi- 
tion. There  is  no  such  example  in  history  of  the  success  of  two 
separate  races  under  such  circumstances.  Less  than  sixty  years 
ago,  Ohio  had  thousands  of  an  Indian  population.  She  has  now 
but  thirty  red  men  in  her  borders.  The  negro,  with  a  difference 
of  color  indelible,  has  been  freed  under  every  variety  of  cir- 
cumstances ;  but  his  freedom  has,  in  most  cases,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  been  only  nominal.  Prejudice  stronger  than  all  princi- 
ples, though  not  always  stronger  than  lust,  has  imperatively 
separated  the  whites  from  the  blacks.  In  the  school-house,  the 
church,  or  the  hospital,  the  black  man  must  not  seat  himself  beside 
the  white ;  even  in  death  and  at  the  cemetery  the  line  of  distinction 
is  drawn."  —  S.  S.  Cox.  Eight  Tears  in  Congress,  pages  249,  250. 


"Judge  Douglass  was  right  when  he  maintained  that  these 
commonwealths  were  for  white  men.  Aside  from  the  question  of 
policy,  there  is  an  admitted  right  in  each  State  to  make  or  unmake 
its  citizenship ;  to  declare  who  is  and  who  is  not  entitled  thereto. 
That  will  not  be  denied.  "When  Minnesota  came  here  for  admis- 
sion, that  was  settled.  But  my  colleague  seems  to  admit  that 
political  privileges,  like  that  of  suffrage,  may  be  fixed  by  State 
laws.  Indeed,  the  Supreme  Court  have  decided  that  the  State 
has  the  exclusive  right  so  to  do.  If  so,  by  what  reason  can  a  State 
deprive  the  black  race  of  the  right  of  suffrage,  on  which  depend 
all  laws,  all  protection,  all  assessment  of  taxes,  all  punishments, 
even  the  matter  of  life  and  death,  and  yet  not  have  power  to  for- 
bid such  black  race,  as  a  dangerous  element,  from  mingling  with 
its  population !  The  Constitution  of  Illinois,  just  submitted  to  the 
people,  denies  to  the  negro  the  right  of  emigrating  to  or  having 
citizenship  in  that  State.  Hitherto  the  same  prohibition  has  ex- 
isted in  Illinois  and  Indiana,  and  othern  western  States.  .  .  . 
The  right  and  power  to  exclude  Africans  from  the  States  north 


190  AMERICAN  WRITERS   ON  THE  NEGRO. 

being  compatible  with  our  system  of  State  sovereignty  and  federal 
supremacy,  I  assert  that  it  is  impolitic,  dangerous,  degrading, 
and  unjust  to  the  white  men  of  Ohio  and  of  the  North  to  allow 
such  immigration."  —  8.  8.  Cox.  Eight  Tears  in  Congress,  pages 
243,  244. 


"  The  Caucasian,  or  white  man  is  five  feet  and  between  nine 
and  ten  inches  high ;  the  Esquimaux  four  feet  and  seven  inches 
high;  the  Mongolian  type,  to  which  the  Chinese  belong,  five 
feet  and  between  four  and  five  inches  high.  The  Caucasian 
type  weighs  one  hundred  and  fifty-six  pounds ;  the  Esquimaux 
ninety-seven  pounds;  the  Mongol  one  hundred  and  thirty-two 
pounds.  The  Caucasian  lives  to  be  sixty-six  years  and  four  months 
old  ;  the  Mongol  to  be  fifty-three  years  old ;  and  the  Esquimaux 
to  be  forty-one  years  old.  The  life-insurance  companies  of  Eu- 
rope and  America  all  predicate  their  policies  upon  the  fact  that 
white  men  and  women  live  to  be  sixty-six  years  and  four  months 
old  on  an  average.  This  average  is  based  upon  observations  on 
the  duration  of  moi-e  than  six  million  lives.  The  statistics  of  the 
British  and  French  armies  are  full  of  evidence  going  to  show  and 
to  prove  that  in  height  and  weight  no  two  races  of  men  have  yet 
been  found  alike.  The  feet  and  hands,  the  arms  and  legs,  are  un- 
like in  measurement.  The  hand  of  the  negro  is  one-twelfth  longer 
and  one-tenth  broader  than  the  hand  of  the  white  man ;  his  foot 
is  one-eighth  longer  and  one-ninth  broader  than  the  white  man's ; 
his  forearm  is  one-tenth  shorter ;  and  the  same  is  true  of  the  bones 
from  the  knee  to  the  ankle.  These  last-stated  measurements  are 
given  upon  the  authority  of  Sir  Charles  Lyell.  There  has  not  yet 
been  found,  as  far  as  I  can  learn,  one  bone  in  the  skeleton  of  the 
white  man  which  does  not  differ  both  in  weight  and  measurement 
from  its  fellow-bone  which  may  belong  to  any  other  type  of  man. 
The  skeleton  is  unlike  in  the  whole  in  weight  and  measurement, 
and  unlike  in  every  bone  of  it.  These  average  differences  ought 
to  be  conclusive  that  they  cannot  and  do  not  belong  to  the  same 
type;  and  these  unvarying  dissimilarities  must  be  produced  by 
causes  which  are  not  accidental."  —  William  Mungen.  Speech  in 
the  House  of  Representatives,  July  10,  1867 

"Some  of  our  people  who  pretend  to  see  in  the  Indian,  the 


AMERICAN   WRITERS   ON  THE   NEGRO.  191 

Chinaman,  the  Esquimaux,  and  especially  the  African,  '  a  man  and 
a  brother,'  claim  that  all  the  wide  and  impassable  differences  which 
are  found  between  the  races  or  types  of  men  have  been  pro- 
duced by  accidental  causes,  by  climate,  and  by  amalgamations. 
I  have  already,  for  the  present  at  least,  sufficiently  answered  the 
climatic  part  of  this  proposition,  and  have  only  to  say  that  if  it  be 
true,  as  held  by  my  Radical  friends,  that  the  negro  is  •  a  man  and 
a  brother,'  —  that  he  is  the  offspring  of  Adam,  —  that  there  was,  in 
other  words,  but  one  race  at  first,  —  how  there  could  have  been 
'  amalgamations '  I  cannot  imagine.  Amalgamation,  in  the  sense 
in  which  they  use  it,  implies  a  plurality  of  races,  — just  what  ethnol- 
ogists claim ;  but  in  fact  it  upsets  the  Radical  theory  of  the  '  unity 
of  races,'  upon  Avhich  must  depend  their  whole  argument  in  favor 
of  '  equality  and  fraternity.'  For  as  soon  as  they  admit  that  the 
races  are  of  different  origins  they  can  no  longer  claim  that  all 
races  are  equal,  any  more  than  they  can  claim  that  the  horse 
and  the  ass  are  equal.  The  principle  on  which  the  argu- 
ment rests  is  identical.  .  .  .  Miscegenation  is  a  subject  of 
vast  importance  to  society,  to  posterity,  and  especially  at  the  pres- 
ent time  to  the  statesmen  of  our  country.  For  it  is  true  in  his- 
tory and  true  in  science  that  nations  which  allow  their  national 
stock  to  be  adulterated,  which  tolerate  amalgamation  with  other 
national  types,  will  perish  certainly,  and  perish  forever.  I  have 
said  that  this  is  a  question  of  the  utmost  importance  to  the  states- 
men of  America,  —  of  that  portion  of  it  especially  which  once  bore 
deservedly  the  name  of  '  The  United  States  of  America ; '  and  I 
say  now,  with  all  the  candor  possible,  that  if  those  statesmen, 
those  gentlemen  who  are  moulding  and  shaping  the  policy  and 
laws  and  regulations  for  our  government,  fail  to  be  guided  by 
experience  and  science  and  history  in  shaping  a  policy  to  pre- 
vent amalgamation,  miscegenation,  social  and  political  equality 
of  the  different  races,  white,  black,  red,  yellow,  and  brown,  our 
nation  will  be  suffocated,  as  it  were,  by  these  foolish  and  suicidal 
projects,  these  Utopian  schemes  of  equality  of  races."  —  William 
Mungen.  Speech  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  July  10,  1867. 


"  There  are  two  other  subjects  or  sciences  which  bear  impor- 
tant testimony  relative  to  the  origin  of  types  of  the  human  races ; 
I  allude  to  embryology  and  cranioscopy.  I  do  not  profess  to  un- 


192  AMERICAN  WRITERS   ON  THE  NEGRO. 

derstand  either  of  these  subjects  or  sciences  thoroughly ;  but  tho 
professors  of  embryology  assert,  and  they  are  unanimous  in  the 
assertion,  that  the  law  of  life  which  operates  to  organize  man  in 
his  earliest  moment,  that  the  spermatozoa  and  the  cell  formation 
are  entirely  different  in  each  type  of  the  human  race ;  and  that  in 
this  department  of  her  work,  as  in  every  other,  nature  displays 
infinite  variety.     I  repeat,  then,  the  declaration  of  these  learned 
gentlemen,  that  under  a  powerful  microscope  the  fact  that  the 
different  types  of  men  are  absolutely  different  creations  is  no 
longer  an  open  question.    The  law  which  operates  to  organize 
and  the  being  organized  are  different  from  the  first  and  different 
totally.     But  quite  the  most  curious,  and  perhaps  the  most  impor- 
tant discovery  which  cranioscopy  has  made  relates  to  the  position 
which  each  type  holds  in  the  scale  of  civilization.    It  is  found  that 
the  races  of  men  whose  brain  measures  sixty-four  cubic  inches  or 
less  are  always  barbarous  and  heathen  people  ;  that  they  have  not 
intellectual  power  sufficient  to  frame  a  government  nor  to  enact 
laws ;  in  other  words,  to  make  for  themselves  any  form  of  gov- 
ernment better  than  heathenism  makes.    The  races  of  men  whose 
brain  measures  from  seventy-four  to  eighty-four  cubic  inches  are 
the  unprogressive  people.    They  are  half-civilized  or  half-barbar- 
ous ;  the  governments  they  found  are  always  despotic ;  the  laws 
they  enact  are  always  peculiar,  and  are  different  from  the  laws 
enacted  by  any  other  type   of  people.    The  people  of  China, 
Japan,  India,  —  in  short  the  greater  portion  of  the  types  of  man, 
—  are  embraced  and  included  between  sixty-eight  and  eighty-four 
cubic  inches  of  brain.     The  nationalities  whose  brain  measures 
ninety-four  cubic  inches  or  upward  are  the  only  nationalities  who 
are  progressive  and  enlightened,  who  are  capable  of  cultivating  the 
physical  sciences  to  practical  results,  and  whose  governments  are 
made  for  the  benefit  of  the  people.   Cranioscopy  declares  that  the 
different  types  have  each  a  different  organization,  —  in  other  words, 
a  different  creation ;  and  it  further  declares  that  there  are  as  plainly 
different  kinds  of  men,  having  different  kinds  of  humanities  in  the 
world  as  there  are  different  kinds  of  beasts ;  that  the  horse  and  the 
ox  are  not  more  certainly  different  creations  than  the  white  man  and 
the  Indian,  the  Indian  and  the  African,  the  African  and  the  Chinese, 
the  Chinaman  and  the  Esquimaux.  ...  I  have  discussed  this  ques- 
tion of  races,  because  it  lies  at  the  foundation  of  our  social  and  polit- 
ical structure.    All  history  shows  that  a  free  government,  adminis- 


AMERICAN  WRITERS   ON  THE  NEGRO.  193 

tered  according  to  law,  is  impossible,  unless  the  people  who  create 
the  laws  and  accept  them  for  their  government  are  endowed  with 
those  qualities  of  mind  and  character  which  have  never  been  ex- 
hibited by  the  negro  race.  The  attempt  to  blend  the  races  by 
the  coercion  of  statutory  enactments  and  military  violence  will  be 
instinctively  repelled  by  the  white  dominant  race;  and  if  this 
coercion  should  succeed,  it  would  have  no  other  result  than  a  com- 
mon degradation  and  a  common  ruin."  —  William  Mungen.  Speech 
in  the  House  of  Representatives,  July  10,  1867. 


"  The  difference  is  not  only  in  the  hair,  but  it  is  in  the  whole 
anatomical  structure  of  the  head,  inside  and  outside.  The  negro's 
face  projects  like  a  muzzle,  and  the  teeth  are  obliquely  inserted, 
so  that  their  edges  meet  as  at  projecting  angles.  The  develop- 
ment of  the  jaw  (prognathism)  is  in  direct  relation  or  proportion 
to  the  intellectual  capacity  of  a  people, — the  prognathous  being  con- 
fined to  the  lowest  races  of  men,  among  them  the  negro.  Their 
cranial  capacity  is  different.  The  volume  of  an  American  of 
English  head  is  in  cubic  centimetres  1572 — 95,  while  that  of  a 
negro,  born  in  Africa,  is  only  1371 — 42,  and  the  place  occupied 
in  relation  to  cranial  capacity  and  cerebral  weight  corresponds 
with  the  degree  of  intellectual  capacity  and  civilization.  The 
weight  of  the  white  man's  brain  is  greater  than  that  of  the  negro. 
The  convolutions  of  the  brain  are  different.  The  anterior  and 
frontal  lobes  of  the  white  man  show  a  far  better  mental  develop- 
ment. All  these  assertions  are  maintainable  by  high  German, 
French,  and  English,  as  well  as  American  authority ;  but  this  is 
not  the  place  nor  the  hour  for  metaphysical  or  psychological  dis- 
cussion. Every  feature  of  the  white  man  and  negro  differs.  The 
nose  is  different.  The  nostrils  of  a  Caucasian  form  two  nearly 
rectangular  triangles,  the  hypothenuses  of  which  are  turned  out- 
wards, whilst  the  septum  of  the  nose  forms  a  perpendicular  line 
common  to  the  two  triangles.  On  taking  a  similar  view  of  the 
negro,  the  nostrils  present  only  a  transverse  aperture,  or  the 
figure  of  a  horizontal  eight  united  in  the  middle  by  the  nasal  sep- 
tum. The  form  and  size  of  the  mouth,  the  shape  of  the  lips  and 
cheeks  are  very  different.  The  apish  chin  of  the  negro  differs 
very  essentially  from  that  of  the  white  man.  The  facial  angle  of 
the  distinguished  writer,  Camper,  amounts  in  the  negro  to  70.75 
17 


194  AMERICAN  WRITERS   ON  THE  NEGRO. 

degrees,  —  it  may  sink  to  65,  —  whilst  in  the  Caucasian  it  is  rarely 
below  80,  and  frequently  a  few  degrees  higher.  The  negro's 
skull  is  thicker  than  the  white  man's,  the  cervical  muscles  more 
powerful,  and,  hence,  the  negro  carries  his  burden  on  his  head, 
and,  like  a  ram  in  a  fight,  uses  his  skull.  The  negro's  shoulder 
differs  from  the  white  man's.  The  negro's  hand  is  larger,  his  fin- 
gers long  and  thin,  palms  flat,  thumb-balls  scarcely  prominent. 
'  All  the  characters  of  his  hand '  (says  Carl  Voght)  '  decidedly  ap- 
proach that  of  the  Simian  hand.'  The  leg,  the  calves  of  the  leg, 
all  differ  from  the  white  man's.  '  The  femoral  bones,  as  well  as 
the  fibula,  seem  curved  outwards,  so  that  the  knees  are  more 
apart  from  each  other  than  in  the  white.'  The  pelvis  is  organi- 
cally different.  '  The  foot  of  the  negro,'  says  Burmeister,  •  is  in 
everything  ugly, — flat,  of  a  projecting  heel,  a  thick,  flabby 
cushion  in  the  inner  cavity,  with  wide-spreading  toes.  The  mid- 
dle part  of  the  foot  does  not  touch  the  ground.'  Voght,  the  Ger- 
man physiologist,  calls  it '  the  foot  of  the  gorilla,  or,  if  you  please, 
the  posterior  hand.'  I  cite  these  facts  to  show  that  it  is  not  the 
skin  alone  that  parts  the  white  from  the  negro  race,  not  the  der- 
mis,  or  epidermis,  or  pigment  therein."  —  James  Brooks.  Speech 
in  the  House  of  Representatives,  December  18,  1867. 


"Where,  oh,  tell  me  where,  sir,  has  the  pure-blooded  negro 
unassisted  by  the  white  man,  exhibited  any  of  the  triumphs  of 
genius  ?  Where  have  we  found  that  race  producing  a  Homer,  a 
Phidias,  a  Praxiteles,  a  Socrates,  a  Demosthenes,  a  Virgil,  or  a 
Milton,  or  a  Shakespeare?  Where  has  it  produced  any  great 
architect  like  Michael  Angelo  ?  Where  any  great  poet,  where  any 
heroic  soldier  like  Alexander,  Caesar,  or  Napoleon  ?  Where  any 
wonderful  mechanic  ?  What  negro  of  pure  blood  ever  started  a 
steam-engine,  or  a  spinning-jenny,  a  screw,  a  lever,  the  wheel, 
or  the  pulley?  What  negro  has  invented  a  telegraph,  or  dis- 
covered a  star,  a  satellite,  or  an  asteroid  ?  What  negro  ever  con- 
structed a  palatial  edifice  like  this  in  which  we  are  assembled,  — 
these  Corinthian  columns,  —  these  frescoed  walls  ?  Negro  his- 
tory makes  no  mark  in  the  great  world's  progress.  That  history 
is  all  a  blank,  blank,  blank,  sir.  The  negro  can  never  rise  above 
a  certain  range  of  intelligence.  The  children  of  the  negro,  up  to 
ten  or  fifteen  years  of  age,  may  be  as  bright  and  as  intelligent  as 


AMERICAN  WRITERS  ON  THE  NEGRO.  195 

white  children.  They  acquire  knowledge  as  rapidly ;  but  after 
that  early  age  the  negro  youth  does  not  advance  as  does  the 
white  youth.  While  the  white  man  is  increasing  in  knowledge  till 
the  day  of  his  death,  the  negro  reaches  before  the  age  of  maturity 
a  point  beyond  which  he  cannot  well  advance  in  anything  save  in 
the  arts,  of  mere  imitation."  — James  Brooks.  Speech  in  the  House 
of  Representatives,  December  18,  1867. 


"  I  need  not  cross  the  Atlantic  to  show  the  fatal  step  you  are 
taking  by  this  Reconstruction  Bill  in  going  into  this  copartnership 
with  negroes.  Our  continent  has  been  settled  by  two  classes  of 
men,  —  Anglo-Saxon,  Celt,  and  Teuton  in  the  North,  and  the 
Spanish-Latin  race  in  the  South.  God  never  made  a  nobler  race 
of  men  than  the  old  Hidalgos  of  Spain,  who,  under  Columbus,  in  a 
little  caraval  of  forty  tons,  started  on  the  trackless  Atlantic  in  search 
of  the  then  unknown  America.  God  never  made  a  nobler  i'ace,  I 
repeat,  than  these  Hidalgos  of  Spain.  What  did  they  do  ?  They 
ran  all  along  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  from  Florida  on  the  north  to 
Cape  Horn  on  the  southern  verge  of  South  America.  They  settled 
Mexico  and  Venezuela,  New  Grenada  and  Chili,  and  Peru,  and, 
coasting  all  the  Northern  Pacific,  imprinted  the  holy,  classic  names 
of  old  Spain  upon  the  now  golden  mountains  and  vine-covered 
valleys  of  the  State  of  California.  They  climbed  the  snow-clad 
Cordilleras,  and  planted  their  banner  on  every  hill  and  every  val- 
ley of  Mexico,  Peru,  and  Chili.  They  drove  Montezuma  from 
the  halls  of  his  Aztec  ancestoi's ;  and,  under  Cortez  and  Pizarro, 
Peruvian,  Mexican,  and  semi-barbarian  civilization  fell  before  the 
mighty  prowess  of  their  arms.  Their  heroic  deeds,  their  lofty 
chivalry,  their  Christian  loyalty,  now  read  more  like  the  romances 
of  a  Froissart  than,  as  they  are,  the  true  records  of  history. 

"  Our  Anglo-Saxon  fathers  started  later  from  the  shores  of  Eng- 
land, and  landed  upon  the  rock  of  Plymouth  or  upon  the  flats  of 
Jamestown.  The  Puritan  himself,  trembling  over  his  rock  for  a 
while,  in  terror  of  the  tomahawk,  ventured  at  last  on  what  was  then 
deemed  gigantic  heroism.  He  crossed  the  Connecticut  and  the 
Hudson,  and  slowly  crept  up  the  Mohawk,  and  halted  for  years  and 
years  upon  Lakes  Erie,  Ontario,  and  Huron.  The  cavaliers  of 
Jamestown  threaded  their  way  up  the  River  James,  stealthily 
wound  over  the  passes  of  the  Alleghanies,  and  looked  down  at  last 


196  AMERICAN  WRITERS  ON  THE  NEGRO. 

with  astonishment  and  affright  upon  la  belle  riviere  of  Ohio.  But  all 
this  time  these  heroic  Hidalgos  of  Spain  were  spreading  the  name 
and  fame  of  Castile  and  Arragon  throughout  the  whole  American 
continent,  from  Florida  on  the  north  to  Cape  Horn  on  the  south,  and 
from  Cape  Horn  to  California,  while  our  Anglo-Saxon  race  stood 
shivering  upon  the  Ohio  and  Lake  Erie  without  the  courage  to  ad- 
vance further.  What,  sir,  happened  then  ?  What  has  produced 
this  difference  between  us  and  the  lofty  Hidalgo  ?  Why  are  they 
fallen,  these  men  of  the  Armada,  so  exalted  among  all  the  nations 
of  the  earth,  who  made  our  ancestors,  in  the  days  of  Queen  Eliza- 
beth, tremble  on  the  throne  ?  Why  was  it  that  in  the  Mexican  war 
one  regiment  of  our  Anglo-Saxon,  Celtic, Teutonic  blood,  again  and 
again  put  whole  regiments  of  these  once  noble  Hidalgos  of  Spain 
to  flight  at  Chapultepec,  the  Garita,  and  elsewhere  ?  I  will  tell 
you  why,  sir.  The  Latin,  the  Spanish  race,  freed  from  that  in- 
stinct of  ours  which  abhors  all  hybrid  amalgamation,  revelled  in  a 
fatally  tempting  admixture  of  blood, — indulged  in  social  and 
governmental  copartnership  with  Aztecs,  Indians,  Negroes,  one 
and  all.  The  pure  blood,  the  azure  blood,  of  the  old  Hidalgos  of 
Spain,  lost  and  drained,  dishonored  and  degraded,  has  dwindled 
into  nothing,  while  the  pure  blood  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  the  Celts, 
the  Teutons,  abhorring  all  such  association  and  amalgamation 
with  the  negro  or  the  Indian,  has  leaped  over  Lake  Erie,  crossed 
la  belle  riviere,  the  great  Father  of  Waters,  the  Mississippi,  crowded 
the  mountain  passes  of  Colorado,  Utah,  Nevada,  and  Montana, 
rolled  over  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  spread  for  hundreds  of 
miles  on  the  Pacific  Ocean,  —  carrying  not  only  there,  but  every- 
where, triumphant,  from  the  Arctic  to  the  Antarctic,  the  glorious 
flag  of  oar  country,  —  that  emblem  of  a  pure  race,  — and  ever  con- 
trasting the  glory  and  honor,  the  prowess  of  that  race  with  the 
degradation  of  the  race  of  these  once  noble  Hidalgos  of  Spain." 
—  James  Brooks.  Speech  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  Dec.  18, 
1867. 


"  Our  four  millions  of  negro  slaves  absorb  the  public  mind, 
and  the  thoughts  and  the  time  of  government,  by  the  dangers 
they  evoke.  They  have  produced  sectional  animosity  and  strife 
where  peace  and  good-will  should  reign.  They  have  thrown  the 
administration  of  the  law  throughout  the  South  into  lynch-law 


AMERICAN   WRITERS   ON  THE  NEGRO.  197 

committees,  and  have  forbidden  an}T  northern  man  to  go  there, 
unless  he  leaves  his  independence,  and  freedom  of  thought  and 
speech  behind  him.  They  have  destroyed  all  industry  but  their 
own,  and  made  the  South  dependent,  upon  foreign  supplies  for 
every  article  which  human  ingenuity  has  invented  for  the  com- 
fort and  accommodation  of  man.  They  must  be  sentinelled  and 
watched,  to  protect  society  from  horrors  worse  than  war.  They 
inspire  terror  daring  peace,  and,  in  case  of  invasion,  would  be 
more  fearful  than  the  enemy.  By  means  of  their  weakness  they 
control  our  politics ;  they  conquer  us  by  abject  submission  ;  they 
overwhelm  us  by  mere  prolific  growth ;  they  have  manacled  our 
hands  and  feet  with  fetters  of  gold,  and,  nominally  slaves,  they 
are  really  the  masters  of  our  destiny."  —  Fisher's  Laws  of  Race, 
page  30. 


"White  men  alone  possess  the  intellectual  and  moral  energy 
which  creates  that  development  of  free  government,  industry,  sci- 
ence, literature,  and  the  arts,  which  we  call  civilization.  Black 
men  can  neither  originate,  maintain,  nor  comprehend  civiliza- 
tion." —  Fisher's  Laws  of  Race,  page  10. 


"  Surely  no  argument  is  necessary  to  prove  that  a  nation  must 
be  happier,  wiser,  richer,  more  powerful,  and  more  glorious,  where 
the  whole  people  are  of  the  strongest,  most  intellectual,  and  most 
moral  race  of  mankind,  than  where  any  portion  of  the  people  are 
degraded  by  nature,  and  incapable  of  progress  or  civilization. 
Barbarism  is  barbarism,  whether  in  Africa  or  America;  and  a 
country  inhabited  by  barbarians  cannot  be  civilized.  Just  in  pro- 
portion to  the  number  of  its  barbarians  is  it  wanting  in  the  ele- 
ments of  civilization,  and  just  in  that  proportion,  too,  is  it  weak 
and  liable  to  overthrow  from  dangers  within  and  without."  — 
Fisher's  Laics  of  Race,  page  33. 


"  Though  the  negro  in  the  North  is  not  a  slave,  he  is  made  an 
outcast  and  a  pai-iah.     There  is  no  place  for  him  in  northern  so- 
ciety ;  no  aspiration  nor  hopes  to  stimulate  him ;    none  of  the 
prizes  of  life,  wealth,  power,  respectability,  are  held  out  to  him, 
17* 


198  AMERICAN  WRITERS   ON  THE  NEGRO. 

to  nerve  his  efforts  and  elevate  his  desires.  He  is  governed  and 
protected  in  all  his  rights  wholly  by  the  white  race,  without  his 
participation.  He  is  excluded  from  office,  from  the  hustings, 
from  the  court-house,  from  the  exchange,  from  every  intellectual 
calling  or  pursuit,  not  by  legal  enactment,  but  by  his  own  incapac- 
ity, and  by  opinion  ;  by  the  feeling  of  caste  and  race,  — that  is  to 
say,  by  divine  laws,  which  are  stronger  than  any  the  legislature 
can  make.  He  has  no  civil  or  political  power  whatever,  by  which 
to  protect  himself,  and  he  may  not  lay  a  finger  on  one  of  those 
three  wonderful  boxes,  the  ballot-box,  the  jury-box,  and  the  car- 
tridge-box, which  contain  the  instruments  and  weapons  by  which 
freemen  defend  their  rights.  They  are  for  the  white  race  only. 
A  negro  governor,  legislator,  judge,  magistrate,  or  juryman  does 
not  exist,  could  not  by  possibility  exist,  in  the  whole  Noith.  This 
race  is  not  only  excluded  from  all  political  and  civil  place  and 
power,  but  the  avenues  to  social  rank  and  respectability  are 
closed  against  him ;  or  rather  they  are  too  steep  and  difficult  for  him 
to  climb.  He  is  not  a  land-owner,  a  manufacturer,  a  mei-chant. 
There  is  no  legal  obstacle ;  but  land,  machinery,  and  ships  are  things 
he  cannot  manage.  There  are  no  black  attorneys-at-law,  physi- 
cians, authors,  or  capitalists  in  the  North.  The  law  opens  to  the 
negro  these  spheres  of  activity  as  widely  as  to  the  white  man,  but 
they  are  far  beyond  the  negro's  wildest  dreams,  because  beyond 
his  talents.  He  is  thus  pushed  down  by  a  superior  moral  and  in- 
tellectual force,  which  he  can  neither  comprehend  nor  resist,  into 
those  pursuits  which  the  Saxon,  and  even  the  Celt,  avoids  if 
he  can,  — into  labors  which  require  the  least  strength  of  mind  or 
body,  which  yield  the  least  profit,  and  are  menial  and  degrading. 
The  spirit  of  caste  drives  the  negro  out  of  churches,  theatres, 
hotels,  rail-cars,  and  steamboats,  or  assigns  to  him,  in  them,  a 
place  apart.  It  drives  him  into  the  cellars,  dens,  and  alleys  of 
towns,  into  hovels  in  the  country ;  and  it  does  all  this  without 
laws,  without  concert  or  design,  without  unkindness  or  cruelty, 
but  unconsciously,  simply  because  it  cannot  help  doing  it,  obey- 
ing this  instinctive  impulse,  and  the  immutable,  eternal  laws  by 
which  the  races  of  men  are  kept  apart,  and  are  preserved  through 
countless  ages  without  change.  These  laws  are  divine.  They 
execute  themselves  in  spite  of  party  combinations  or  fanatical 
legislatures,  or  philanthropic  enthusiasts,  or  visionary  dreamers 


AMERICAN  WRITERS   ON  THE  NEGRO.  199 

about  human  perfectibility  and  the  rights  of   man." — Fisher's 

Laws  of  Race,  pages  21-23. 


"  Strikingly  apparent  is  it  that  the  negro  is  a  fellow  of  many 
natural  defects  and  deformities.  The  wretched  race  to  which  he 
belongs  exhibits,  among  its  several  members,  more  cases  of  lusus 
natures,  than  any  other.  Seldom,  indeed,  is  he  to  be  seen  except 
as  a  preordained  embodiment  of  uncouth  grotesqueness,  malfor- 
mation, or  ailments.  Not  only  is  he  cursed  with  a  black  com- 
plexion, an  apish  aspect,  and  a  woolly  head;  he  is  also  rendered 
odious  by  an  intolerable  stench,  a  thick  skull,  and  a  booby  brain. 
An  accurate  description  of  him  calls  into  requisition  a  larger  num- 
ber of  uncomplimentary  terms  than  are  necessary  to  be  used  in 
describing  any  other  creature  out  of  Tophet ;  and  it  is  truly  as- 
tonishing how  many  of  the  terms  so  peculiarly  appropriate  to  him 
are  compound  works  of  obloquy  and  detraction. 

"The  night-born  ogre  stands  before  us;  we  observe  his  low, 
receding  forehead,  his  broad,  depressed  nose ;  his  stammering, 
stuttering  speech ;  and  his  general  actions,  evidencing  monkey- 
like  littleness  and  imbecility  of  mind.  By  close  attention  and  ex- 
amination, we  may  also  discover  in  the  sable  individual  before  us, 
if,  indeed,  he  be  not  an  exception  to  the  generality  of  his  race, 
numerous  other  prominent  defects  and  deficiencies.  Admit  that 
he  be  not  warp-jawed,  maffle-tongued,  nor  tongued-tied,  is  he 
not  skue-sighted,  blear-eyed,  or  blobber-lipped?  If  he  be  not 
wry-necked,  wen-marked,  nor  shoulder-shotten,  is  he  not  stiff- 
jointed,  hump-backed,  or  hollow-bellied?  If  he  be  not  slab- 
sided,  knock-kneed,  nor  bow-legged,  is  he  not  (to  say  the  least) 
spindle-shanked,  cock-heeled,  or  flat-footed?  If  he  be  not 
maimed,  halt,  nor  blind,  is  he  not  feverish  with  inflammations, 
festerings,  or  fungosities?  If  he  be  not  afflicted  with  itch,  blains, 
nor  blisters,  does  he  not  squirm  under  the  pains  of  boils,  burns,  or 
bruises  ?  If  he  be  not  the  child  of  contusions,  sprains,  nor  dislo- 
cations, is  he  not  the  man  of  scalds,  sores,  or  scabs?  If  he  be  not 
an  endurer  of  the  aches  of  pneumonia,  pleurisy,  nor  rheumatism, 
does  he  not  feel  the  fatal  exacerbations  of  rankling  wounds,  tu- 
mors, or  ulcers?  If  he  be  no  complainer  over  the  cramps  of 
coughs,  colics,  nor  constipation,  doth  he  not  decline  and  droop 
under  the  discomforts  of  dizziness,  dropsy,  or  diarrhoea  ?  If  he  be 


200  AMERICAN  WRITERS  ON  THE  NEGRO. 

no  sufferer  from  hemorrhoids,  erysipelas,  nor  exfoliation,  is  he 
not  a  victim  of  goitre,  intumescence,  or  paralysis?  If  he  expe- 
rience no  inconvenience  from  gum-rash,  cholera-morbus,  nor 
moon-madness,  doth  he  not  wince  under  the  pangs  of  the  hip- 
gout,  the  tape-worm,  or  the  mulli-grubs?  If  he  be  free  from 
idiocy,  insanity,  or  syncope,  is  he  not  subject  to  fits,  spasms,  or 
convulsions  ?  "  —  Helper's  Nojoque,  pages  68-69. 


"  Weak  in  mind,  frail  in  morals,  torpid  and  apathetic  in  phy- 
sique, the  negro,  wherever  he  goes,  or  wherever  he  is  seen,  car- 
ries upon  himself,  in  inseparable  connection  with  abjectness  and 
disgrace,  such  glaring  marks  of  inferiority  as  are  no  less  indelible 
and  conspicuous  than  the  base  blackness  of  his  skin.  Upon  this 
point,  all  the  records  of  the  past,  all  the  evidences  of  the  present, 
all  the  prognostications  of  the  future,  are  plain  and  positive.  In 
the  long  catalogue  of  the  great  names  of  the  world  —  names 
which,  whether  they  have  caused  nations  to  tremble  with  fear 
and  suspense,  to  quiver  with  awe  and  admiration,  to  laugh  with 
satisfaction  and  delight,  or  to  weep  with  innocent  sadness  and 
love  —  there  does  not  appear  the  cognomen  of  a  single  negro! 
To  overlook  the  ponderous  significance  of  this  fact,  to  gainsay  it, 
to  wink  it  or  to  blink  it,  let  no  unworthy  attempt  be  made.  In 
nothing  that  ennobles  mankind  has  any  negro  ever  distinguished 
himself.  For  none  of  the  higher  walks  of  life  has  he'  ever  dis- 
played an  aptitude.  To  deeds  of  true  valor  and  patriotism  he 
has  always  proved  recreant.  Over  none  of  the  wide  domains  of 
agriculture,  commerce,  nor  manufactures,  has  any  one  of  his  race 
ever  won  honorable  mention.  Within  the  classic  precincts  of  art, 
literature,  and  science,  he  is,  and  forever  will  be,  utterly  un- 
known."—  Helper's  Nojoque,  page  300. 


"  Shabbiness  and  drollery  of  dress,  and  awkwardness  of  gait 
are  also  notable  characteristics  of  the  negro.  Faultless  garments, 
and  well-shaped  hats  and  shoes  are  things  that  are  never  found 
upon  his  person.  Once  or  twice  a  year  he  buys  (or  begs)  a  suit 
of  second-hand  clothing ;  but  seldom  does  he  wear  any  article  of 
apparel  more  than  two  or  three  weeks  before  the  outer  edges  of 
the  same  become  ragged ;  then  unsightly  holes  and  shreds  and 


AMERICAN   WRITERS    ON  THE  NEGRO.  201 

patches  follow  in  quick  succession,  —  and  yet  the  slovenly  and 
slipshod  tatterdemalion  is  as  contented  and  mirthful  as  a  merrj  • 
making  monkey."  —  Helper's  Nojoque,  page  70. 


"  Now  come  I  to  a  subject  of  somewhat  novel  importance,  — a 
subject  which  has  occupied  my  attention  for  a  great  while,  and 
one  for  the  discussion  of  which,  it  is  believed,  the  present  is  a 
suitable  time.  I  allude  to  the  presence  of  so  many  negroes  in  our 
cities  and  towns,  —  places  where  not  one  of  them  should  ever  be 
permitted  to  reside  at  all ;  and  if  I  shall  succeed,  as  I  hope  and  be- 
lieve I  shall,  in  presenting  such  a  combination  of  facts  and  argu- 
ments as  will  demonstrate  the  propriety  of  removing  them  all  into 
the  country  (if  far  and  forever  beyond  the  limits  of  the  United  States, 
so  much  the  better),  I  shall  regard  it  as  evidence  complete  that 
these  lines  have  been  judiciously  penned.  It  may,  I  think,  be 
safely  assumed  that,  as  a  general  rule,  no  person  ought  to  be 
admitted  as  a  resident  of  any  city,  unless  he  can  readily  command 
one  of  two  things,  namely,  capital  or  talent.  Of  these  two  in- 
dispensable requisites,  the  negro  can  command  neither  the  one 
nor  the  other;  he  should,  therefore,  never  be  allowed  to  live  in 
any  situation,  or  under  any  circumstances,  within  the  corporate 
limits  of  any  city  or  town. 

"  With  few  exceptions,  all  sane  white  persons  have  sufficient 
tact  to  render  themselves  useful  in  some  manner  or  other,  to  gain 
an  honorable  livelihood,  and  to  add  something  to  the  general 
stock  of  human  achievements.  If  their  minds  can  accomplish 
nothing  in  the  domains  of  science,  their  hands  may  be  rewarded 
in  the  fields  of  art.  If  they  cannot  invent  labor-saving  machines, 
they  can  make  duplicates  of  such  as  have  already  been  invented. 
If  they  cannot  enrich  and  embellish  their  country,  by  building 
factories,  stores,  warehouses,  hotels,  and  banks,  they  can  always 
fill  situations  in  such  establishments  with  profit  to  themselves 
and  with  advantage  to  others.  The  negro  can  do  none  of  these 
things.  On  the  contrary,  he  is,  indeed,  a  very  inferior,  dull, 
stupid,  good-for-nothing  sort  of  man.  Past  experience  proves 
positively  that  he  is  not,  and  never  has  been,  susceptible  of  a  high 
standard  of  improvement.  His  capacities  have  been  fully  and 
frequently  tested,  and  have  always  been  found  sadly  deficient. 

To  the  neglect  of  a  large  and  meritorious  class  of  our  own  race, 


202  AMERICAN   WRITERS   ON  THE  NEGLO. 

we  have  made  numerous  experiments  in  favor  of  the  worthless 
negro.  We  have  earnestly  endeavored,  time  and  again,  to  infuse 
into  the  brain  of  the  benighted  black  a  ray  of  intellectual  light,  to 
teach  him  trades  and  professions,  and  to  prepare  him  for  the  dis- 
charge of  higher  duties  than  the  common  drudgeries  of  every-day 
life.  Thus  far,  however,  all  our  efforts  in  his  behalf  have  proved 
abortive ;  and  so  will  they  continue  to  prove,  so  long  as  he  re- 
mains what  he  always  has  been,  and  still  is,  —  a  negro.  Further 
attempts,  on  our  part,  to  elevate  him  to  a  rank  equal  to  that  held 
by  the  white  man,  would  certainly  betray  in  us  an  extraordinary 
and  unpardonable  degree  of  folly  and  obtuseness.  .  .  .  Ne- 
groes are,  in  truth,  so  far  inferior  to  white  people,  that,  for  many 
reasons  consequent  on  that  inferiority,  the  two  races  should  never 
inhabit  the  same  community,  city,  nor  state.  The  good  which 
accrues  to  the  black  from  the  privileges  of  social  contact  with  the 
white  is  more  than  counterpoised  by  the  evils  which  invariably 
overtake  the  latter  when  brought  into  any  manner  of  regular 
fellowship  with  the  former. 

"  Whatever  determination  may  be  come  to  with  regard  to  a 
final  settlement  or  disposition  of  the  negroes,  —  whether  it  be  de- 
cided to  colonize  them  in  Africa,  in  Mexico,  in  Central  America, 
in  South  America,  or  in  one  or  more  of  the  West  India  Islands,  or 
elsewhere  beyond  our  present  limits ;  or  whether  they  be  permit- 
ted to  remain  (a  while  longer)  in  the  United  States,  —  it  is  to  be 
sincerely  hoped  that  there  may  be  no  important  division  of  opinion 
as  to  the  expediency  of  soon  removing  them  all  from  the  cities 
and  towns.  A  city  is  not,  by  any  means,  a  suitable  place  for 
them.  They  are  positively  unfit  for  the  performance  of  in-door 
duties.  Sunshine  is  both  congenial  and  essential  to  their  natures ; 
and  they  ought  not  to  be  employed  or  retained  in  situations  that 
could  be  so  much  more  advantageously  filled  by  white  people. 
One  good  white  person  will,  as  a  general  rule,  do  from  two  to  five 
times  as  much  as  a  negro,  and  will,  in  addition,  always  do  it  with 
a  great  deal  more  care,  cleanliness,  and  thoroughness.  A  negro 
or  a  negress,  in  or  about  a  white  man's  house,  no  matter  where, 
or  in  what  capacity,  is  a  thing  monstrously  improper  and  inde- 
cent. 

"  By  removing  all  the  negroes  into  the  country,  our  agricultural 
districts  would  receive  a  large  addition  of  laborers,  and  conse- 
quently, the  quantity  of  our  staple  products  —  cotton,  corn,  wheat, 


AMERICAN   WRITERS   ON   THE   NEGRO.  203 

sugar,  rice,  and  tobacco  —  would  be  greatly  increased.  Crowds 
of  enterprising  white  people  would  flock  to  our  cities  and  towns, 
fill  the  vacancies  occasioned  by  the  egress  of  the  negroes,  and 
give  afresh  and  powerful  impetus  to  commerce  and  manufactures. 
The  tides  of  both  domestic  and  foreign  immigration,  which  have 
been  moving  westward  for  so  long  a  period,  would  also  soon  be- 
gin to  flow  southward,  and  everywhere  throughout  the  whole 
length  and  breadth  of  our  land  new  avenues  to  various  branches 
of  profitable  industry  would  be  opened. 

"  Let  it  not  be  forgotten,  however,  that  this  proposition  does 
not  contemplate  any  permanent  settlement  of  the  negroes,  even  in 
the  agricultural  districts  of  our  country.  Only  a  temporary  ac- 
commodation of  the  case  is  here  held  in  view.  Perhaps  the  best 
thing  that  we  could  do  just  now,  would  be  to  take  immediate  and 
complete  possession  of  Mexico  (we  shall  acquire  the  whole  of  North 
America,  from  Bearing's  Strait  to  the  Isthmus  of  Darien,  by  and 
by),  and  at  once  push  the  negroes  —  every  one  of  them  — 
south  of  the  Rio  Grande.  On  no  part,  —  to  say  the  least,  —  on  no 
part  of  the  territory  of  the  United  States,  as  at  present  organized, 
should  any  but  the  pure  white  races  ever  find  a  permanent 
domicile. 

"  Now  comes  the  last,  not  the  least,  reason  why  I  advocate  the 
removal  of  the  negroes  from  the  cities  and  towns.  I  believe  that 
the  yellow  fever  (which  is  only  another  name  for  the  African 
fever),  and  other  epidemic  diseases,  —  those  terrible  scourges 
which  have  so  signally  retarded  the  growth  of  Southern  seaports, 
—  have,  to  a  very  great  degree,  been  induced  by  the  peculiarly 
obnoxious  filth  engendered  by  the  black  population.  Who  has 
ever  heard  of  the  yellow  fever  prevailing  to  an  alarming  extent 
in  any  city  or  state  inhabited  almost  exclusively  by  white  people? 
How  fearfully,  how  frequently,  does  it  rage  in  such  despicable, 
negro-cursed  communities,  as  .Norfolk,  Charleston,  Savannah, 
Mobile,  and  New  Orleans  ! 

"  Only  from  the  base  colored  races  is  it,  as  a  rule,  that  we  are 
overwhelmed  and  prostrated  by  wide-spread  contagions  and  epi- 
demics. Even  the  cattle-plague,  the  murrain  among  the  sheep, 
and  other  fatal  distempers  to  which  our  domestic  animals  are 
subject,  have  almost  invariably  had  their  origin  in  the  countries 
which  are  inhabited  by  the  blacks  and  the  browns,  who  are  them- 
selves but  the  rickety-framed  and  leprous  remnants  pf  those 


204  AMERICAN   WRITERS    ON   THE  NEGRO. 

unworthy  races  of  men,  who  have  been  irrevocably  doomed  to 
destruction.  ...  It  is,  indeed,  fully  and  firmly  believed  that 
the  only  way  to  get  rid  of  yellow  fever  is  to  get  rid  of  the  negroes ; 
and  the  best  way  to  get  rid  of  the  negroes  is  now  the  particular 
question  which,  of  all  other  questions,  should  most  earnestly  en- 
gage the  undivided  attention  of  the  American  people."  —  Helper's 
Nojoque,  pages  62-68. 


"  When  the  negro  in  Africa,  in  the  year  1620,  fastening  anew 
upon  both  himself  and  his  posterity  the  condition  of  perpetual 
bondage,  allowed  himself,  as  a  guaranty  of  his  passive  and  pro- 
digious dastardy,  to  be  brought  in  chains  all  the  way  across  the 
Atlantic, — it  was  then  that,  for  the  first  time,  was  reached  the 
uttermost  depth  of  human  degradation.  That  the  negro  had, 
and  has,  always  been  a  slave,  in  his  own  country  or  elsewhere, 
according  to  the  habitat  or  journeyings  of  his  master,  is  well 
known ;  but  it  was  only  when,  as  the  cringing  tool  of  the  meaner 
sort  of  white  men,  he  came  to  America,  that  his  obsequiousness 
and  pusillanimity  began  to  assume  monstrous  proportions.  Of  all 
the  miscreants  and  outcasts  who  have  ever  brought  irreparable 
disgrace  upon  mankind,  the  slave  is  at  once  the  most  despicable 
and  the  most  infamous.  To  be  a  slave  of  the  white  man,  yet,  if 
possible,  to  be  a  slave  exempt  from  the  necessity  of  labor,  has 
always  been  the  ruling  ambition  of  the  negro,  —  not  less  so  now 
than  it  was  four  thousand  years  ago,  and  not  less  so  then  than 
it  is  now."  —  Helper's  Nojoque, page  193. 


"  The  negroes,  like  the  poodles  and  the  pointers,  will  always 
be  the  dependents  and  the  parasites  of  white  men,  just  so  long 
as  white  men,  unnaturally  submitting  to  a  wrongful  relation,  are 
disposed  to  tolerate  the  black  men's  infamously  base  and  beggarly 
pi'esence.  .  .  .  Certain  it  is  that  we  owe  it  to  ourselves  —  and 
we  ought  to  be  able  —  to  get  rid  of  the  negroes  soon  ;  but  if  they 
are  to  be  retained  much  longer  in  the  United  States  (which  may 
God,  in  his  great  mercy,  forbid !)  we  may  as  well  build  immedi- 
ately, for  their  relief  and  correction,  in  alternate  adaptation,  a 
row  of  hospitals  and  prisons,  all  the  way  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific ;  and,  up.on  the  same  plan,  a  range  or  series  of  alms- 


AMERICAN  WRITERS   ON  THE  NEGRO.  205 

houses  and  penitentiaries  the  entire  distance  from  Lake  Superior 
to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico ! 

"All  the  devil-begotten  imps  of  darkness,  whether  black  or 
brown,  whether  negroes  or  Indians,  whether  Mongols  or  mu- 
lattoes,  should  at  once  be  dismissed,  and  that  forever,  from  the 
care,  from  the  sight,  and  even  from  the  thoughts,  of  the  heaven- 
born  whites.  Wherever  seen,  or  wherever  existing,  the  black  and 
bi-colored  races  are  the  very  personifications  of  bastardy  and  beg- 
gary. In  America,  these  races  are  the  most  unwieldy  occasioners 
of  dishonor  and  weakness ;  they  are  the  ill-favored  and  unwelcome 
instruments  of  disservice ;  they  are  the  ghastly  types  of  effeteness 
and  retrogression."  —  Helper's  Nojogue,  pages  209-211. 


"  When,  under  the  auspices  of  monarchical  institutions  ;  when, 
to  pander  to  the  cupidity  of  crowned  heads ;  when,  to  supply  the 
vicious  necessities  of  courtiers  and  sycophants,  a  pack  of  shirtless 
and  shiftless  negroes  were  brought  from  the  coast  of  Africa  and 
planted  in  America,  —  a  pack  of  black  and  beggarly  barbarians, 
so  bestial  and  so  base  as  to  prefer  life  to  liberty,  —  they,  like  all 
other  foreign  felons  and  outlaws,  should  at  once  have  been  re- 
turned to  the  places  whence  they  came  ;  or,  to  say  the  least,  they 
should  have  been  compelled  to  depart,  with  the  greatest  possible 
despatch,  from  the  land  which  they  had  so  foully  desecrated  by 
their  odious  and  infamous  presence. 

In  the  political  organizations  of  mankind,  it  ought  to  be  an 
axiom  of  peculiar  and  universal  acceptation,  that  he  who  values  life 
above  liberty  is  unworthy  to  have  his  existence  prolonged  beyond 
the  hour  when  to-morrow's  sun  shall  set.  This  right  and  truthful 
proposition,  practically  established,  would  leave  the  whole  earth 
absolutely  negroless  ere  the  lapse  of  two  supper-times." — Helper's 
Nojoque,  page  214.  f 


"  Under  the  euphemism  of '  Removal,'  the  American  government 
has  already  expelled,  and  rightly  expelled,  from  time  to  time,  more 
than  one  hundred  thousand  Indians  from  the  States  of  the  Atlantic 
slope,  to  the  wild  lands  west  of  the  Mississippi,  —  these  expulsions 
by  the  government  having  been  independently  of  the  less  systemat- 
ic but  (in  the  aggregate)  much  larger  expulsions  ly  unorganized 
18 


206  AMERICAN   WRITERS  O-V   THE  KEGRO. 

communities  of  the  white  people  themselves.  It  should  also  be  rec- 
ollected, that  all  the  Indians  thus  expelled  or  •  removed,'  were 
people  of  indigenous  origin,  autochthones,  by  whom  the  whole  of 
America  had,  from  time  immemorial,  prior  to  the  days  of  Colum- 
bus, been  held  in  fee-simple.  Now,  if  we  may  rightfully  expel  the 
aboriginal  owners  of  America  from  the  old  homes  and  possessions 
which  they  have  enjoyed  from  a  period  of  time  so  distant  in  the  far 
past  that  it  is  absolutely  untraceable,  what  may  we  not  do  with 
the  alien  and  accursed  negroes,  who,  base-minded  and  barbarous, 
and  bound  hand  and  foot  with  the  fetters  of  slavery,  were  brought 
hither  from  the  coast  of  Africa?  "  —  Helper1*  Nojoque,  page  220. 


"  The  negro  should  never,  under  any  circumstances  whatever, 
be  permitted  to  reside  in  greater  proximity  to  white  people  than 
the  distance  which  separates  Cuba  from  the  United  States ;  if  the 
distance  could  be  lengthened  to  the  extent  of  one  thousand  miles, 
so  much  the  better;  if,  in  point  of  duration,  rather  than  in  point 
of  space,  the  distance  could  be  lengthened  from  now  to  the  end 
of  time  (supposing  such  an  end  possible),  better  still. 

"  On  the  premises  of  no  respectable  white  person  ;  in  the  man- 
sion of  no  honorable  private  citizen ;  in  no  lawfully  convened 
public  assembly ;  in  no  rationally  moral  or  religious  society ;  in  no 
decently  kept  hotel ;  in  no  restaurant  worthy  of  the  patronage  of 
white  people ;  in  no  reputably  established  store  nor  shop,  —  in  no 
place  whatever,  where  any  occupant  or  visitor  is  of  Caucasian 
blood,  —  should  the  loathsome  presence  of  any  negro  or  negress 
ever  be  tolerated."  —  Helpers  Nqjoqut,  page  219. 


•'  To  live  in  juxtaposition  with  the  negro,  or  to  tolerate  his  pres- 
ence even  in  the  vicinity  of  white  men,  is,  to  say  the  least,  a 
most  shameful  and  disgraceful  proceeding,  —  a  proceeding  which, 
if  persisted  in,  will,  sooner  or  later,  bring  down  upon  all  those 
who  are  guilty  of  it,  the  overwhelming  vengeance  of  Heaven. 
By  cringing  and  fawning  like  a  cudgel-deserving  dog,  by  pas- 
sively yielding  and  submitting  like  a  dumb  brute,  by  mimicking 
and  begging  like  a  poll-parrot,  the  negro  has  but  too  generally 
succeeding  in  foisting  himself,  as  a  parasitical  slave  or  servant, 
upon  white  men ;  and  has  thus,  upon  all  occasions,  afforded  ineon- 


AMERICAN   WRITERS   ON  THE  NEGRO.  207 

testable  proofs  of  the  fact  that  he  is,  and  ever  has  been,  equally 
with  his  master,  a  sheer  accomplice  in  the  crime  of  slavery."  — 
Helper's  Nojoque,  page  284. 


"  It  was  by  no  merit  nor  suggestion  of  his  own,  but  rather  by 
the  demerits  of  both  himself  and  his  master,  that  the  negro  was 
brought  to  America.  Not  by  any  spirit  of  commendable  enter- 
prise was  he  induced  to  immigrate  hither.  He  came  under  com- 
pulsion ;  and  under  compulsion  he  must  (in  the  event  of  the  fail- 
ure of  gentler  adominitions  on  our  part)  be  prevailed  upon  to 
emigrate  back  to  Africa,  to  Mexico,  to  Central  America,  to  South 
America,  or  to  the  islands  of  the  ocean. 

"His  coming  to  the  New  World  was  neither  voluntary  nor 
honorable.  It  was  not  for  the  purpose  of  bettering  his  condition 
in  life.  He  sought  not  an  asylum  from  the  oppressions  of  rank 
and  arbitrary  power.  In  unresistingly  allowing  himself  to  be 
forced  from  his  family  and  from  his  country,  without  even  the 
promise  or  the  prospect  of  ever  being  permitted  to  return,  and  in 
passively  submitting  to  be  taken  in  chains  he  knew  not  whither, 
he  pusillanimously  yielded  to  the  most  abject  and  disgraceful  vas- 
salage. 

"  For  his  passage  across  the  Atlantic  he  paid  no  money,  no 
corn,  no  wine,  no  oil,  nor  any  other  thing  whatever.  He  brought 
with  himself  no  household  property,  no  article  of  virtu  (nor 
principle  of  virtue),  no  silver,  no  gold,  nor  precious  stones. 

"  He  washatless,  and  coatless,  and  trouserless,  and  shoeless,  and 
shirtless ;  in  brief,  he  was  utterly  resourceless,  naked  and  filthy. 
He  came  as  the  basest  of  criminals, — he  came  as  a  slave;  for 
submission  to  slavery  is  a  crime  even  more  heinous  than  the  crime 
of  murder;  more  odious  than  the  guilt  of  incest;  more  abomi- 
nable than  the  sin  of  devil-worship. 

"  With  himself  he  brought  no  knowledge  of  agriculture,  com- 
merce, nor  manufactures ;  no  ability  for  the  salutary  management 
of  civil  affairs ;  no  tact  for  the  successful  manoeuvring  of  armies ; 
no  aptitude  for  the  right  direction  of  navies ;  no  acquaintanceship 
with  science,  literature,  nor  art ;  no  skill  in  the  analysis  of  theo- 
ries ;  no  sentiment  stimulative  of  noble  actions ;  no  soul  for  the 
encouragement  of  morality.  Bringing  with  himself  nothing  but 
his  own  black  and  bastard  body,  denuded  and  begrimed,  he  came 


208  AMERICAN  WRITERS  ON  THE  NEGRO. 

like  a  brute ;  he  was  a  brute  then ;  he  had  always  been  a  brute ; 
he  is  a  brute  now ;  and  there  is  no  more  reason  for  believing  that. 
he  will  ever  cease  to  be  a  brute,  than  there  is  for  supposing 
that  the  hound  will  ever  cease  to  be  a  dog,  —  only  that  the 
black  biped,  the  baser  of  the  two,  will  be  the  sooner  exter- 
minated. 

"  Yet  this  is  the  fatuous  and  filthy  fellow  whom,  by  certain  de- 
graded and  very  contemptible  white  persons,  we  are  advised  to 
recognize  as  an  equal  and  as  a  brother !  This  is  the  incorrigible 
and  grovelling  ignoramus  upon  whom  it  is  proposed  to  confer  at 
once  the  privilege  of  voting,  —  the  right  of  universal  suffrage  ! 
This  is  the  loathsome  and  most  execrable  wretch  (rank-smelling 
and  hideous  arch-criminal  that  he  is),  who  has  been  mentioned  as 
one  fit  to  have  a  voice  in  the  enactment  of  laws  for  the  govern- 
ment of  the  American  people. 

"  Shall  we  confer  the  elective  franchise  on  this  base-born  and  ill- 
bred  blackamoor,  —  this  heathenish  and  skunk-scented  idiot  ? 
No  !  Why  not  ?  Because  he  does  not  know,  and  cannot  know, 
how  to  vote  intelligently.  It  would  therefore,  to  say  the  least,  be 
an  act  of  gross  folly  on  our  part,  to  extend  to  the  negro  the  privi- 
lege of  doing  what  the  omnipotent  God  of  nature  has  obviously, 
and  for  all  time,  denied  him  the  power  to  do. 

"  Those  of  our  half-witted  and  demagogical  legislators  who  waste 
time  in  attempting  to  prove  the  equality  of  the  negro,  and  in  the 
drafting  of  absurd  laws  for  his  recognition  in  good  faith  as  a  citi- 
zen of  the  United  States,  might,  with  equal  propriety,  busy  them- 
selves in  the  ridiculous  irrationality  of  framing  codes  for  allowing 
the  gorilla  and  the  chimpanzee  to  attend  common  schools,  and 
for  the  baboon  and  the  orang-outang  to  testify  in  courts  of 
equity ! 

"  No  man  should  ever  be  recognized  as  a  citizen  of  the  United 
States,  nor  be  allowed  to  participate  in  any  of  the  rights  or  privi- 
leges of  citizenship,  who  did  not  come  hither  honorably  and  of 
his  own  accord,  —  who  did  not  immigrate  to  these  shores,  he  or 
his  ancestors,  free,  free  from  the  gyves  and  chains  of  slavery.  It 
was  not  of  his  own  choosing,  it  was  not  at  his  own  option,  it  was 
only  in  a  state  of  the  most  abject  and  criminal  servitude,  —  a  sort 
of  compound  felony  between  himself  and  his  master,  —  that  the 
negro  came  hither  from  Africa.  Therefore,  for  these  and  other 
sufficient  reasons,  the  negro  should  have  no  voice,  no  part,  nor  lot, 


AMERICAN   WRITERS   ON  THE  NEGRO.  209 

in  any  of  the  public  affairs  or  private  concerns  of  America."  — 
Helper's  Nojoque,  pages  215-217. 


"  I  maintain,  without  reservation,  the  following  among  other 
opinions,  — that  the  human  race  has  not  sprung  from  one  pair,  but 
from  a  plurality  of  centres,  that  these  were  created  ab  initio  in 
those  parts  of  the  world  best  adapted  to  their  physical  nature  ;  that 
the  epoch  of  creation  was  that  undefined  period  of  time  spoken  of 
in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  wherein  it  is  related  that  God 
formed  man,  '  male  and  female  created  he  them ; '  that  the  deluge 
was  a  merely  local  phenomenon ;  that  it  affected  but  a  small  part 
of  the  then  existing  inhabitants  of  the  earth ;  and,  finally,  that 
these  views  are  consistent  with  the  facts  of  the  case,  as  well  as 
with  analogical  evidence."  —  Samuel  George  Morton.  Letter  to 
Mr.  Gliddon,  May,  1846. 


"  After  twenty  years  of  observation  and  reflection,  during  which 
period  I  have  always  approached  this  subject  with  diffidence  and 
caution ;  after  investigating  for  myself  the  remarkable  diversities 
of  opinion  to  which  it  has  given  rise,  and  after  weighing  the  diffi- 
culties that  beset  it  on  every  side,  I  can  find  no  satisfactory  ex- 
planation of  the  diverse  phenomena  that  characterize  physical 
man,  excepting  in  the  doctrine  of  an  original  plurality  of  races." 
Samuel  George  Morton.  Types  of  Mankind,  page  305. 


"  For  my  own  part,  if  I  could  believe  that  the  human  race  had 
its  origin  in  incest,  I  should  think  .that  I  had  at  once  got  the  clue 
to  all  ungodliness.  Two  lines  of  catechism  would  explain  more 
than  all  the  theological  discussions  since  the  Christian  era.  I  have 
put  it  into  rhyme :  — 

"  QUESTION.  —  Whence  came  that  curse  we  call  primeval  sin? 
ANSWER.  — From  Adam's  children  breeding  in  and  in." 

—  Samuel  George  Morton.     Types  of  Mankind,  page  409. 
18* 


210  AMERICAN   WRITERS   ON  THE  NEGRO. 

"  I  shall  conclude  these  remarks  on  this  part  of  the  inquiry,  by 
observing,  that  no  mean  has  been  taken  by  the  Caucasian  races 
collectively,  because  of  the  very  great  preponderance  of  Hindoo, 
Egyptian,  and  Fellah  skulls,  over  those  of  the  Germanic,  Pelasgic, 
and  Celtic  families.  Nor  could  any  just  collective  comparison  be 
instituted  between  the  Caucasian  and  negro  groups  in  such  a 
table  as  we  have  presented,  unless  the  small-brained  people  of 
the  latter  division  were  proportionate  in  number  to  the  Hindoos. 
Egyptians,  and  Fellahs  of  the  other  group.  Such  a  comparison, 
were  it  practicable,  would  probably  reduce  the  Caucasian  average 
to  about  eighty-seven  cubic  inches,  and  the  negro  to  seventy- 
eight  at  most,  —  perhaps  even  to  seventy-five ;  and  thus  confirm- 
atively  establish  the  difference  of  at  least  nine  cubic  inches  between 
the  mean  of  the  two  races." — Samud  George  Morton.  Types  of 
mankind,  page  321. 


"  There  are  only  two  alternatives  before  us  at  present  :  — 

"1st.  Either  mankind  originated  from  a  common  stock,  and 
all  the  different  races  with  their  peculiarities,  in  their  present  dis- 
tribution, are  to  be  ascribed  to  subsequent  changes,  — an  assump- 
tion for  which  there  is  no  evidence  whatever,  and  which  leads  at 
once  to  the  admission  that  the  diversity  among  animate  is  not  an 
original  one,  nor  their  distribution  determined  by  a  general  plan, 
established  in  the  beginning  of  the  creation,  — or, 

"  2d.  We  must  acknowledge  that  the  diversity  among  animals 
is  a  fact  determined  by  the  will  of  the  Ci'eator,  and  their  geograph- 
ical distribution  part  of  the  general  plan  which  unites  all  organ- 
ized beings  into  one  great  organic  conception ;  whence  it  follows 
that  what  are  called  human  races,  down  to  their  specialization  as 
nations,  are  distinct  primordial  forms  of  the  type  of  man. 

"  The  consequences  of  the  first  alternative,  which  is  contrary  to 
all  the  modern  results  of  science,  run  inevitably  into  the  Lamark- 
ian  development  theory,  so  well  known  in  this  country  through 
the  work  entitled  '  Vestiges  of  Creation ;'  though  its  premises  are 
generally  adopted  by  those  who  would  shrink  from  the  conclusions 
to  which  they  necessarily  lead."  —  Prof.  Agassiz.  Types  of  Man- 
kind, page  75. 


AMERICAN   WRITERS   ON  THE  NEGRO.  211 

"  Do  not  the  instincts  of  our  nature,  the  social  laws  of  man,  all 
over  the  civilized  world,  and  the  laws  of  God,  from  Genesis  to 
Revelation,  cry  aloud  against  incest?  Does  not  the  father  shrink 
with  horror  from  the  idea  of  marrying  his  own  child,  or  from 
seeing  the  bed  of  his  daughter  polluted  by  her  brother  ?  Do  not 
children  themselves  shudder  at  the  thought?  And  can  it  be  cred- 
ited that  a  God  of  infinite  power,  wisdom,  and  foresight,  should 
have  been  driven  to  the  necessity  of  propagating  the  human  family 
from  a  single  pair,  and  then  have  stultified  his  act  by  stamping 
incest  as  a  crime  ?  I  do  not  believe  that  true  religion  ever  intended 
to  teach  a  common  origin  for  the  human  race.  '  Cain  knew  his 
wife,'  whom  he  found  in  a  foreign  land,  when  he  had  no  sister  to 
marry;  and  although  corruption  and  sin  were  not  wanting 
among  the  patriarchs,  yet  nowhere  in  Scripture  do  we  see,  after 
Adam's  sons  and  daughters,  a  brother  marrying  his  sister."  — 
Josiali  Clark  Nott.  Types  of  Mankind,  page  408. 


"  Much  as  the  success  of  the  infant  colony  at  Liberia  is  to  be 
desired  by  every  true  philanthropist,  it  is  with  regret  that,  while 
wishing  well  to  the  negroes,  we  cannot  divest  our  minds  of  mel- 
ancholy forebodings.  Dr.  Morton,  quoted  in  another  chapter,  has 
proved  that  the  negro  races  possess  about  nine  cubic  inches  less  of 
brain  than  the  Teuton;  and,  unless  there  were  really  some  facts  in 
history,  something  beyond  bare  hypothesis,  to  teach  us  how  these 
deficient  inches  could  be  artificially  added,  it  would  seem  that  the 
negroes  in  Africa  must  remain  substantially  in  that  same  be- 
nighted state  wherein  Nature  has  placed  them,  and  in  which 
they  have  stood,  accoi'ding  to  Egyptian  monuments,  for  at  least 
five  thousand  years."  —  Josiah  Clark  Nott.  Types  of  Mankind, 
page  189. 


"  The  negro  has  never  taken  one  step  towards  mental  develop- 
ment, as  we  understand  it.  He  has  never  invented  an  alphabet,  — 
that  primal  starting-point  in  mental  cultivation,  —  he  has  never 
comprehended  even  the  simplest  numerals,  — in  short,  has  had  no 
instruction  except  that  which  is  verbal  and  imitated,  which  the 
child  copies  from  the  parents,  which  is  limited  to  the  existing  gen- 
eration ;  and  therefore  the  present  generation  are  in  the  same  con- 


212  AMERICAN  WRITERS   ON  THE  NEGRO. 

dition  that  their  progenitors  occupied  thousands  of  years  ago."- 
Van  Eyrie's  Negroes  and  Negro  Slavery,  page  218. 


"The  negro  mind,  in  essential  respects,  is  always  that  of  a 
child, — the  intelligence,  as  observed,  is  more  rapidly  developed 
in  the  negro  child,  —  those  faculties  more  immediately  connected 
with  sensation,  perception,  and  perhaps  memory,  are  more  ener- 
getic ;  but  when  they  reach  twelve  and  fifteen,  they  diverge  ;  the 
reflective  faculties  in  the  white  are  now  called  into  action,  the  real 
Caucasian  character  now  opens,  the  mental  forces  fairly  evolved, 
while  the  negro  remains  stationary,  —  a  perpetual  child.  The 
negro  of  forty  or  fifty  has  more  experience  or  knowledge,  per- 
haps, as  the  white  man  of  that  age  has  a  more  extended  knowl- 
edge than  the  man  of  twenty-five ,  but  the  intellectual  calibre  —  the 
actual  mental  capacity  —  in  the  former  case  is  no  greater  than  it 
was  at  fifteen,  when  its  utmost  limits  were  reached." 
Negroes  and  Negro  Slavery,  page  219. 


"White  husbands  and  wives,  when  one  dies  in  early  life,  often 
remain  unmarried,  faithful  to  a  memory  forever ;  and  still  more 
frequently,  perhaps,  the  affections  that  bound  them  together  in 
their  youth  remain  bright  and  untarnished  in  age  and  to  the  bor- 
ders of  the  grave.  Such  a  thing  never  happened  with  a  negro. 
Not  one  of  the  countless  millions  that  have  lived  upon  the  earth 
was  ever  kept  from  marrying  a  second  time  by  a  sentiment  or  a 
memory.  With  their  limited  moral  endowment  such  a  thing  is  an 
absolute  moral  impossibility.  They  live  with  each  other  to  ex- 
treme old  age,  because  they  imitate  the  superior  race,  and  be- 
cause it  has  become  a  habit,  perhaps ;  but  the  grand  purposes  of 
nature  accomplished,  there  is  little  or  nothing  more,  or  of  those 
blessed  memories  of  joy  and  suffering,  of  early  hopes  and  chast- 
ened  sorrow,  which  so  bind  and  blend  together  the  white  husband 
and  wife,  and  often  render  them  quite  as  necessary  to  each  other's 
happiness  as  in  the  flush  and  vigor  of  youth." —  Van  Eyrie's  Ne- 
groes and  Negro  Slavery,  page  242. 


"It  may  be  confidently  asserted  that  no  community  can  be 


AMERICAN   WRITERS   ON  THE  NEGEQ.  213 

found,  who,  as  an  original  proposition,  are  prepared  to  commit 
their  industrial  and  economical  relations  into  the  hands  of  Afri- 
cans. The  acknowledged  inferiority  of  the  negro  is  a  sufficient 
guaranty  against  the  suicidal  step.  .  .  .  Why  is  it  that  the 
negro  should  be  preferred  to  the  white  man  in  the  occupation  of 
our  territory?  There  is  no  place,  state,  condition,  or  relation  af- 
fecting the  good  of  society  in  which  the  negro  is  not  inferior  to 
the  white  man.  In  labor,  in  battle,  in  knowledge,  in  council,  in 
citizenship,  in  statesmanship,  the  white  man  prevails  over  the  Af- 
rican. If  you  introduce  these  people  into  a  new  community,  as  it 
appears  to  me,  for  every  man  whose  place  is  filled  by  a  negro, 
you  injure  the  community  in  that  degree.  If  these  people  mingle 
their  blood  with  the  white  race,  the  progeny  is  debased  and  fallen 
from  the  white  status ;  if  you  hold  them  in  slavery,  they  are  hurt- 
ful to  the  progress  and  prosperity  *of  the  community;  if  you  set 
them  free,  they  are  not  desirable  for  citizens.  .  .  .  There  is 
no  disguising  the  fact,  that  if  you  legislate  to  give  the  Africans 
place,  position,  and  employment  which  would  otherwise  belong  to 
white  men,  you  depreciate  white  men,  —  you  invidiously  stigma- 
tize their  race."  —  Samuel  T.  Glover.  St.  Louis,  July  26,  1860. 


"We  have  noticed,  with  some  surprise,  what  we  regard  as  a 
strange  confusion  of  thought  in  England,  in  regard  to  the  feeling 
here  about  slavery  and  about  the  negro.  It  seems  to  be  taken  for 
granted  by  most  European,  and  even  most  British,  writers  upon 
the  subject,  that  opposition  to  slavery  and  a  liking  of  the  negro, 
or  at  least  a  special  good-will  to  him,  must  go  together,  and  vice 
versa ;  and  that  consequently  a  war  which  was  accepted  rather 
than  that  the  point  of  the  exclusion  of  slavery  from  free  territory 
should  be  yielded,  and  which  was  prosecuted  in  a  great  measure 
for  the  extinction  of  slavery  where  it  had  been  already  established, 
must  have  as  its  result  the  elevation  of  the  negro  to  the  political 
and  social  level  of  the  dominant  race,  or  else  that  its  professed 
anti-slavery  motive  was  a  mere  pretence.  No  supposition  could 
be  more  erroneous.  I  tell  you  frankly  that  the  mass  of  the  people 
here  were  glad  to  fight  against  slavery,  but  had  no  intention  of  fight- 
ing for  the  negro.  They  felt  that  slavery  was  a  great  crime,  a 
sin  against  human  nature.  They  wished  to  purge  the  republic  of 
that  wickedness,  but  they  had  no  particular  sympathy  with,  though 


214  AMERICAN  WRITERS  ON  THE  NEGRO. 

most  of  them  much  compassion  for,  the  race  against  whom  the 
wrong  was  committed.  You  in  Europe  seemed  to  be  thinking 
about  the  individual  negroes ;  we,  in  the  mass,  thought  little  or 
nothing  of  the  individual  negroes,  but  much  of  the  barbarous  in- 
stitution of  slavery."  —  Richard  Grant  White.  Letter  to  the  Lon- 
don Spectator,  1865. 

"  In  the  last  year  of  the  war,  a  clergyman  who  had  been  a  pro- 
fessor in  the  college  where  I  studied,  and  who  is  one  of  those  gen- 
tle, firm,  wise  men,  with  large  souls,  and  wide  sympathies,  who 
can  control  men,  and  particularly  young  men,  by  mere  personal 
influence,  so  that  when  the  under-graduates  were  unruly  or  had  a 

grievance,  they  would  give  up  at  once  to  Dr. for  pure  love, 

when  his  colleagues  could  do  nothing,  and  all  the  terrors  of  college 
discipline  were  laughed  to  scorn,  — this  man  went  to  the  South  on 
a  tour  of  observation,  and  was  placed  in  authority,  as  far  as  slavery 
was  concerned,  over  a  considerable  reclaimed  district  by  one  of  our 
most  eminent  generals.  For  years  before  the  war  he  had  been 
one  of  our  strongest  anti-slavery  men,  and  had  by  his  writings 
done  as  much  as  any  one  person  in  the  countiy,  who  was  not  a 
professed  journalist  or  politician,  to  bring  about  the  state  of  pub- 
lic feeling  that  provoked  secession.  I  met  him  on  his  return  home, 
and  had  not  talked  with  him  three  minutes  before  he  said  to  me, 
'  I  come  back  hating  slavery  more  than  ever,  but  loathing  the 
negro  with  an  unutterable  loathing.  What  a  curse  to  have  that 
people  on  our  hands ! '  And  not  long  ago,  one  of  the  editors  of 
one  of  the  leading  anti-slavery  papers  in  the  country,  and  one 
which  advocates  giving  suffrage  to  the  freed  slaves,  said  to  me, 
'  These  negroes  are  doubtless  here  by  a  dispensation  of  Provi- 
dence, but,'  with  an  earnestness  which  a  whimsical  smile  could 
not  conceal ;  '  oh,  that  the  Lord  had  been  pleased  to  dispense  his 
negroes  somewhere  else ! '"  —  Richard  Grant  White.  Letter  to  the 
London  Spectator,  1865. 

"  There  has  never  been  the  slightest  danger  of  an  insurrection 
of  the  slaves.  The  real  victim  of  slavery  is  the  Avhite  man. 
Whatever  little  good  there  is  in  the  system,  the  black  man  has  had ; 
while  most  of  the  evil  has  fallen  to  the  white  man's  share."— 
Parian's  Gen.  Butler  in  New  Orleans,  page  99. 


AMERICAN   WRITERS   ON  THE  NEGRO.  215 

"  The  United  States  are  young,  fresh,  and  vigorous,  abounding 
in  wealth,  exulting  in  strength,  and  eager  for  action.  They  come 
of  a  race,  the  Anglo-Saxon,  seemingly  endowed  with  a  deathless 
spring  and  vitality,  —  a  race  which  crushed  old  Rome,  when  Rome 
oppressed  the  world,  —  which  reared  the  stupendous  structure  of 
British  enterprise,  —  which  impelled  the  armies  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, —  which  planted  in  the  New  World  the  hardiest  of  its  colo- 
nists, —  and  which  now,  commanding  the  citadel  as  well  as  the 
outposts  of  civilization,  wields  the  destinies  of  all  the  tribes."  — 
Parke  Godwin.  Political  Essays,  page  115. 


"  The  population  in  America  of  European  extraction  has  grown 
so  large,  and  the  accessions  to  it  by  immigration  are  so  vast,  that 
we  can  begin  to  see  that  the  mission  of  the  negro  here  is  nearly 
completed,  and  that  the  limits  of  his  possible  expansion  may  be 
computed.  In  fifty  years,  the  white  races  now  in  the  United 
States,  and  their  descendants,  will  number  more  than  one  hun- 
dred millions.  While  it  is  impossible  to  predict  exactly  the  march 
of  this  great  multitude,  or  to  define  precisely  the  regions  it  will 
occupy,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  the  negro  in  North  America  must  be 
pressed  into  narrow  bounds.  And  it  is  in  North  America  only 
that  he  is  formidable,  because  it  is  here  only  that  his  numbers  are 
increasing ;  the  African  race  in  South  America  and  in  the  West 
Indies  being  either  stationary  or  declining,  except  so  far  as  it  is 
kept  up  by  the  slave-trade,  which  is  reduced  now  to  a  single  isl- 
and, restrained  even  there  within  close  limits,  and  menaced  con- 
stantly by  that  complete  extinction  which  it  cannot  long  escape." 
—  Weston's  Progress  of  Slavery,  page  158. 


"  The  experiment  of  Africanizing  America  has  had  a  long  trial, 
of  more  than  three  centuries,  and  has  failed  at  all  points  and  in 
every  particular.  Of  course,  it  was  not  expected  to  bring  civili- 
zation and  the  arts  to  the  New  World,  and  it  has  failed  even  to 
populate  it.  The  policy  of  Africanization  ought  now  to  be  given 
up ;  but  whether  given  up  or  not,  it  must  soon  yield  to  a  new  and 
better  order  of  events."  —  Weston's  Progress  of  Slavery,  page  161. 


216  MULATTOS  S;    THE    OFFSPRING    OF  CRIMES. 

'*  Anatomy,  physiology,  and  microscopy  concur  in  proving  that 
the  negro  is  of  a  distinct  and  inferior  species  to  the  Caucasian ; 
and  history  confirms  the  evidence  fui*nished  by  the  investigation 
of  the  natural  philosopher.  The  unvai-ying  color  of  the  hair,  — 
the  distinctive  mark  of  all  animals  incapable  of  civilization,  —  as 
well  as  the  peculiarity  of  its  structure ;  the  volume,  shape,  and 
weight  of  the  brain,  inferior  to  that  of  the  dominant  species,  and 
the  half-brute-like  character  of  the  physiognomy,  and  general 
formation  are  evidences  not  to  be  disregarded  by  the  careful  and 
conscientious  philosopher.  Neither  in  ancient  nor  modern  times 
has  the  negro,  even  when  placed  under  the  most  favorable  cir- 
cumstances, achieved  anything  of  moment.  The  steady  advance 
of  the  white  species  meets  with  no  parallel  in  the  black.  The 
latter  has  proved  itself,  when  left  to  itself,  to  be  incapable  of  prog- 
ress. Even  when  taught  by  a  superior  species,  it  soon  retro- 
grades to  hopeless  barbarism.  .  .  .  No  man  who  values  him- 
self, who  has  any  regard  for  sound  morality,  or  who  feels  any 
desire  to  see  intellectual  progress  made  certain,  can  join  in  the 
absurd  attempt  to  raise  the  negro  to  his  own  level.  A  movement 
for  such  ends  is  necessarily  impotent,  and  can  only  result,  at  the 
best  for  the  negro,  in  the  degradation  of  the  white." — Thomas 
Dunn  English.  Letter  to  John  Campbell,  Philadelphia,  1851. 


CHAPTER    XXXI. 

MULATTOES;   THE  OFFSPRING  OF    CRIMES    AGAINST  NATURE. 

"  IN  1842, 1  published  a  short  essay  on  Hybridity,  the  object  of 
which  was,  to  show  that  the  white  man  and  the  negro  were 
distinct  species,  illustrating  my  position  by  numerous  facts  from 
the  natural  history  of  man  and  that  of  the  lower  animals.  The 
question,  at  that  time,  had  not  attracted  the  attention  of  Dr.  Mor- 
ton. Many  of  my  facts  and  alignments  were  new,  even  to  him ; 


MULATTOES;    THE   OFFSPRING   OF  CRIMES.  217 

and  drew  from  the  great  anatomist  a  private  letter,  leading  to  the 
commencement  of  a  friendly  correspondence,  to  me,  at  least,  most 
agreeable  and  instructive,  and  which  endured  to  the  close  of  his 
useful  career. 

"  In  the  essay  alluded  to,  and  in  several  which  followed  it  at 
short  intervals,  I  maintained  these  propositions :  — 

"  1.  That  mulattoes  are  the  shortest-lived  of  any  class  of  the 
human  race. 

"  2.  That  mulattoes  are  intermediate  in  intelligence  between  the 
blacks  and  the  whites. 

"  3.  That  they  are  less  capable  of  undergoing  fatigue  and  hard- 
ship than  either  the  blacks  or  whites. 

"  4.  That  the  mulatto  women  are  peculiarly  delicate,  and  subject 
to  a  variety  of  chronic  diseases.  That  they  are  bad  breeders,  bad 
nurses,  liable  to  abortions,  and  that  their  children  generally  die 
young. 

"  5.  That  when  mulattoes  intermarry,  they  are  less  prolific  than, 
when  crossed  on  the  parent  stocks. 

"  6.  That  when  a  negro  man  married  a  white  woman,  the  off- 
spring partook  more  largely  of  the  negro  type  than  when  the  re- 
verse connection  had  effect. 

"  7.  That  mulattoes  like  negroes,  although  unacclimated,  enjoy 
extraordinary  exemption  from  yellow-fever,  when  brought  to 
Charleston,  Savannah,  Mobile,  or  New  Orleans. 

"  Almost  fifty  years  of  residence  among  the  white  and  black  races 
spread  in  nearly  equal  proportions  through  South  Carolina  and 
Alabama,  and  twenty-five  years1  incessant  professional  intercourse 
with  both,  have  satisfied  me  of  the  absolute  truth  of  the  preceding 
deductions."  —  Dr.  JosiaJi  Clark  tfott.  Types  of  Mankind,  page 
373. 


"It  was  not  until  the  discovery  of  a  new  world  that  races  of 
man  of  strikingly  contrasted  qualities  came  to  intermix.  In  the 
Western  world,  the  intermixture  of  nations  which  followed  the 
conquests  —  first  of  the  Romans,  and  afterwards  of  the  northern  na- 
tions —  was  a  union  of  races  of  equal  quality ;  and  hence  it 
cannot  be  predicated  that  either  improvement  or  deterioration  was 
the  result.  Very  different  was  the  case  in  the  Eastern  world. 
There  Greeks,  Romans,  and  Goths  intermingled  with  races 
19 


218  MULATTOES;    THE   OFFSPRING   OF  CRIMES. 

greatly  inferior  to  themselves, — such  as  Egyptians  and  Syrians, 
—  and  hence  the  deterioration  to  which,  in  a  great  measure,  must 
be  ascribed  that  decline  in  civilization  which  ended  in  the  down- 
fall  of  the  Roman  power.  Nature  has  endowed  the  various  races 
of  man  with  widely  different  qualities,  bodily  and  mental,  much 
in  the  same  way  as  it  has  done  with  several  closely  allied  species 
of  the  lower  animals.  When  the  qualities  of  different  races  of 
man  are  equal,  no  detriment  results  from  their  union.  The  mon- 
grel French  and  English  are  equal  to  the  pure  breeds  of  Germany 
and  Scandinavia.  When,  on  the  other  hand,  they  are  unequal, 
deterioration  of  the  higher  race  is  the  inevitable  result."  —  John 
Crawford.  Anthropological  Review,  Vol.  I.,  page  405. 


"  Nature  appears  to  have  guarded  against  the  alterations  of 
species  which  might  proceed  from  mixture  of  breeds,  by  influenc- 
ing the  various  species  of  animals  with  mutual  aversion  from  each 
other.  Hence  all  the  cunning  and  all  the  force  that  man  is  able 
to  exert  is  necessary  to  accomplish  such  unions,  even  between 
species  that  have  the  nearest  resemblances.  And  when  the  mule- 
breeds,  that  are  thus  produced  by  these  forced  conjunctions,  hap- 
pen to  be  fruitful,  which  is  seldom  the  case,  this  fecundity  never 
continues  beyond  a  few  generations,  and  would  not  probably  pro- 
ceed so  far,  without  a  continuance  of  the  same  cares  which  ex- 
cited it  at  first.  Thus  we  never  see  in  a  wild  state  intermediate 
productions  between  the  hare  and  the  rabbit,  between  the  stag 
and  the  doe,  or  between  the  martin  and  the  weasel.  But  the 
power  of  man  changes  this  established  order,  and  contrives  to 
produce  all  these  intermixtures  of  which  the  various  species  are 
susceptible,  but  which  they  would  never  produce  if  left  to  them- 
selves." —  Cuvier.  Theory  of  the  Earth,  page  118. 


"  In  regard  to  the  sterility  of  hybrids  in  successive  generations; 
though  Gartner  was  enabled  to  rear  some  hybrids,  carefully  guid- 
ing them  from  a  cross  with  either  pure  parent,  for  six  or  seven, 
and  in  one  case  for  ten  generations,  yet  he  asserts  positively  that 
their  fertility  never  increased,  but  generally  greatly  decreased. 
I  do  not  doubt  that  it  is  usually  the  case,  and  that  the  fertility  often 


MULATTOS S;    THE   OFFSPRING   OF  CHIMES.  219 

suddenly  decreases  in  the  first  few  generations." — Darwin's  Origin 
of  Species,  page  220. 


"  I  doubt  whether  any  case  of  a  perfectly  fertile  hybrid  animal 
can  be  considered  as  thoroughly  well  authenticated."  —  Darwin's 
Origin  of  Species,  page  223. 

Some  one,  who  signs  himself  "  Ariel,"  has  recently  pub- 
lished, in  Cincinnati,  a  pamphlet,  in  which,  with  wonderful 
ingenuity  of  citation  and  argument,  he  endeavors  to  prove, 
even  from  the  Bible  itself,  that  the  negro  is  a  mere  beast,  a 
creature  without  a  soul.  If  "  Ariel's  "  positions  be  admitted 
as  true,  what  terrible  penalties  have  been  incurred  by  the 
many  very  vile  and  very  disreputable  individuals  who  have 
violated  the  following  law :  — 

"  If  a  man  lie  with  a  beast  he  shall  surely  be  put  to  death ;  and 
ye  shall  slay  the  beast.  And  if  a  woman  approach  unto  any  beast, 
and  lie  down  thereto,  thou  Shalt  kill  the  woman  and  the  beast ; 
they  shall  surely  be  put  to  death."  —  Leviticus  XX.  15. 


"  Thou  shalt  not  let  thy  cattle  gender  with  a  diverse  kind ;  thou 
shalt  not  sow  thy  field  with  mingled  seed."  —  Leviticus  XIX.  19. 


"  Thou  shalt  not  sow  thy  vineyard  with  divers  seeds,  lest  the 
fruit  of  thy  seed  which  thou  hast  sown  and  the  fruit  of  thy  vine- 
yard be  defiled;  thou  shalt  not  plough  with  an  ox  and  an  ass 
together."  —  Deuteronomy  XXII.  9. 

"  The  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying,  Speak  unto  Aaron,  say- 
ing, Whosoever  he  be  of  thy  seed  in  their  generations  that  hath 
any  blemish,  let  him  not  approach  to  offer  the  bread  of  his  God. 
For  whatsoever  man  he  be  that  hath  a  blemish  he  shall  not  ap- 
proach ;  a  blind  man  or  a  lame,  or  Tie  that  hath  aflat  nose,  or  any- 
thing superfluous,  or  a  man  that  is  broken-footed,  or  broken- 
handed,  or  crook-backed,  or  a  dwarf,  or  that  hath  a  blemish  in  his 


220  JUULATTOES;    THE  OFFSPRING   OF  CRIMES. 

eye,  or  be  scurvy  or  scabbed,  or  hath  his  stones  broken ;  .  .  . 
he  hath  a  blemish ;  he  shall  not  come  nigh  to  offer  the  bread  of 
his  God.' "  —  Leviticus  XXL  16. 


"  You  asked  me,  in  conversation,  what  constituted  a  mulatto 
by  our  law  ?  and  I  believe  I  told  you  four  crossings  with  the 
whites.  I  looked  afterwards  into  our  law  and  found  it  to  be  in. 
these  words :  '  Every  person,  other  than  a  negro,  of  whose  grand- 
fathers or  grandmothers,  any  one  shall  have  been  a  negro,  shall 
be  deemed  a  mulatto,  and  so  every  such  person  who  shall  have 
one-fourth  part  or  more  of  negro  blood  shall,  in  like  manner,  be 
deemed  a  mulatto.'  .  .  .  The  case  put  in  the  first  member  of 
this  paragraph  of  the  law  is  exempli  gratid.  The  latter  contains 
the  true  canon,  which  is,  that  one-fourth  of  negro  blood,  mixed 
with  any  portion  of  white,  constitutes  the  mulatto.  As  the  issue 
has  one-half  of  the  blood  of  each  parent,  and  the  blood  of  each  of 
these  may  be  made  up  of  a  variety  of  fractional  mixtures,  the  es- 
timate of  their  compound,  in  some  cases,  may  be  intricate ;  it  be- 
comes a  mathematical  problem  of  the  same  class  with  those  on 
the  mixtures  of  different  liquors  or  different  metals;  as  in  these, 
therefore,  the  algebraical  notation  is  the  most  convenient  and  in- 
telligible. Let  us  express  the  pure  blood  of  the  white  in  the  capi- 
tal letters  of  the  printed  alphabet,  the  pure  blood  of  the  negro  in 
the  small  letters  of  the  printed  alphabet,  and  any  given  mixture 
of  either,  by  way  of  abridgement,  in  MS.  letters. 

"  Let  the  first  crossing  be  of  a,  pure  negro,  and  A,  pure  white. 
The  unit  of  blood  of  the  issue  being  composed  of  the  half  of  that 

a      A 

of  each  parent,  will  be  — ( Call  it,  for  abbreviation,  h  (half 

2        2 

blood). 

"  Let  the  second  crossing  be  of  h  and  B ;  the  blood  of  the  issue  will 

be  -  -{-  - »  or  substituting  for  -  its  equivalent,  it  will  be  — }- 

m  B  4  *i 

A        R 

— | —  ;  call  it  2  (quarteroon),  being  \  negro  blood. 

4         Z 

"  Let  the  third  crossing  be  of  q  and  C ;  their  offspring  will  be 

q   .    C        a    ,    A   .   B        C 

-  H —  =  — h  — :  call  this  e  (eighth) ,  who,  having 

2   '    2        8842 


MULATTOS  S;    THE   OFFSPRING   OF  CRIMES.  221 

less  than  J  of  a  pure  negro  blood,  —  to  wit,  $  only,  —  is  no 
longer  a  mulatto,  so  that  a  third  cross  clears  the  blood. 
"  From  these  elements,  let  us  examine  their  compounds.    For 

h       o       ct 

example,  let  h  and  q  cohabit  ;  their  issue  will  be  —  I-  -  =  -  4- 

2   '    2       4n 

A        a    .    A       B        3a       3A       B  . 

--  ---  ---  k  —  =  —  H  —  H  —  ,  wherein  we  find  f  of  a,  or 

4    '    8    '    8         4         884 

negro  blood. 

"  Let  Ti  ande  cohabit;  their  issue  will  be  —  I  —  =  —  -4-  --  |- 

22         4         4    ' 

a    i    A    •    B    •    c         s«.6A|BIc  5 

--  h  —  n  ---  r  —  =  --  h—  H  ---  —  »  wherein  —  a  makes 

16       16        8         4        16       16         8        4  16 

still  a  mulatto. 

"  Let  q  and  e  cohabit  ;   the  half  of  the  blood  of  each  will  be 


22         884          16         16         8         4         16         16 

--  f-  -,  wherein  —  of  a  is  no  longer  a  mulatto  ;  and  thus  may 

8     '    4  16 

every  compound  be  noted  and  summed,  the  sum  of  the  fractions 
composing  the  blood  of  the  issue  being  always  equal  to  unit.  It 
is  understood  in  natural  history  that  a  fourth  cross  of  one  race  of 
animals  with  another  gives  an  issue  equivalent  for  all  sensible 
purposes  to  the  original  blood.  Thus  a  Merino  ram  being  crossed, 
first  with  a  country  ewe,  second  with  his  daughter,  third  with  his 
grand-daughter,  and  fourth  with  his  great-grand-daughter,  the  last 

issue  is  deemed  pure  Merino,  having  in  fact  but  —  of  the  country 

blood.  Our  canon  considers  two  crosses  with  the  pure  white,  and 
a  third  with  any  degree  of  mixture,  however  small,  as  clearing 
the  issue  of  the  negro  blood."  —  Jefferson's  Works,  Vol.  VL,  page 
436.  Letter  to  Francis  C.  Gray,  March  4,  1815. 


"  Amalgamation  in  races  is  more  than  a  revolution  in  govern- 
ment. It  is  an  attempt  to  make  a  fundamental  change  in  the 
laws  of  nature,  and,  by  blending  different  species  of  the  human 
race,  create  a  hybrid  nation.  This  will  prove  to  be  an  impossi- 
bility. The  red,  white,  and  black  races  have  mingled  very  freely 
19* 


222  MULATTOES;    THE   OFFSPRING   OF  CRIMES. 

on  this  continent,  but  the  hybrids  gradually  wear  out,  while  the 
old  stock  preserves  its  original  type.  The  French,  from  the  in- 
fancy of  discovery  on  this  continent,  intermarried  with  the  Indian 
tribes.  But  where  is  the  French  tribe  of  Indians  to  be  found  ? 
They  made  the  same  experiment  with  the  blacks  in  St.  Domingo, 
and  a  mongrel  race  appeared,  for  a  time,  of  various  tints,  but  it 
is  gradually  vanishing.  So  the  old  Spanish  blood  that  mixed  with 
that  of  the  Indians  in  Spanish  America  has  almost  run  out,  and 
Indians  and  Spaniards  are  as  incongruous  with  each  other  as  in 
the  beginning,  and  the  fatal  result  of  this  attempted  amalgama- 
tion is  shown  in  the  degradation  of  both  races,  and  in  the  insta- 
bility of  their  governments.  If  the  history  of  the  world,  and  the 
present  aspect  of  both  hemispheres,  did  not  make  manifest  the 
absurdity  of  the  proposed  system  of  mixing  the  black  and  white 
races  in  the  management  of  a  common  government,  and  blending 
the  two  colors  to  make  a  third,  or,  rather,  a  piebald  people  of 
all  colors,  the  repugnance  of  caste  which  has  grown  up  in  this 
country  on  the  part  of  the  white  freeman  to  the  black  man,  —  con- 
trasted by  his  servile  condition,  from  his  first  appearance  among 
us,  as  strongly  as  by  his  ebony  skin  and  curled  hair,  —  certainly 
shows  that  nothing  short  of  insanity  could  hope  to  reconcile  the 
dominant,  and,  I  might  say,  the  domineering  race,  to  such  a  con- 
junction."—  Montgomery  Blair.  Speech  at  Concord,  N.  H.,  June 
17,  1863. 


The  following  item,  recently  published  in  the  newspapers, 
showing  a  determination  on  the  part  of  the  people  of  Cali- 
fornia to  prevent,  by  law,  the  amalgamation  of  the  white  and 
black  races,  is,  it  is  believed,  suggestive  of  what  ought  to 
be  done  immediately  by  the  people  of  that  and  every  other 
State  in  the  Union :  — 


"  A  bill  introduced  into  the  lower  House  of  the  California  Leg- 
islature on  the  30th  of  January,  to  prevent  the  amalgamation  of 
different  races  of  men,  provides  that  any  white  person  who  shall 
be  convicted  of  marrying  or  otherwise  cohabiting  with  a  negro, 
mulatto,  Chinese,  or  Indian,  shall  be  punished  by  fine  and  impris- 
onment, or  both ;  and  that  the  fact  that  a  person  beds,  boards, 


ALBINOS,  ETC.  223 

cohabits,  or  intermarries  with  an  individual  of  any  of  said  races, 
shall  be  primd  facie  evidence  that  such  a  person  is  not  a  white 
citizen,  and  shall  subject  him  to  all  constitutional  disabilities  im- 
posed on  persons  of  color." 

It  is  said  that  there  is  not  a  life-insurance  company  in  all 
the  world  that  will  take  a  risk  on  the  life  of  any  mulatto. 
Why  ?  Because  common  sense  and  common  experience  alike 
teach  that  the  mulatto  is  the  offspring  of  a  crime  against 
nature ;  that  he  is  always,  even  from  his  earliest  infancy, 
predisposed  to  disease ;  that  he  seldom  recovers  when  once 
overtaken  by  severe  sickness  ;  that  he  usually  falls  an  easy 
victim  to  epidemics ;  and  that  he  is  (speaking  briefly  and 
to  the  point)  a  nature-abhorred  and  short-lived  monstrosity  ; 
and  yet  mulattoes  and  negroes  are  the  sort  of  creatures  with 
whom  Radical  politicians  would  populate  American  States ! 


CHAPTER    XXXII. 

ALBINOS;   WHITE    NEGROES    AND    OTHER    CREATURES  OF  SUPER- 
NATURAL WHITENESS. 

"  I  WILL  now  add  a  short  account  of  an  anomaly  of  nature,  tak- 
ing place  sometimes  in  the  race  of  negroes  brought  from  Africa, 
who,  though  black  themselves,  have,  in  rare  instances,  white 
children,  called  albinos.  I  have  known  four  of  these  myself,  and 
have  faithful  accounts  of  three  others.  The  circumstances  in 
which  all  the  individuals  agree  are  these :  They  are  of  a  pallid 
cadaverous  white,  untinged  with  red,  without  any  colored  spots  or 
seams ;  their  hair  of  the  same  kind  of  white,  short,  coarse,  and 
curled  as  is  that  of  the  negro ;  all  of  them  well  formed,  strong, 
healthy,  perfect  in  their  senses,  except  that  of  sight,  and  born  of 


224  ALBINOS,   ETC. 

parents  who  had  no  mixture  of  white  blood.  Three  of  these  al- 
binos were  sisters,  having  two  other  full  sisters,  who  were  black. 
The  youngest  of  the  three  was  killed  by  lightning,  at  twelve  years 
of  age.  The  eldest  died  at  about  twenty-seven  years  of  age,  in 
child-bed,  with  her  second  child.  The  middle  one  is  now  alive,  in 
health,  and  has  issue,  as  the  eldest  had,  by  a  black  man,  which 
issue  was  black.  They  are  uncommonly  shrewd,  quick  in  their 
apprehensions  and  in  reply.  Their  eyes  are  in  a  perpetual  tremu- 
lous vibration,  very  weak,  and  much  affected  by  the  sun ;  but  they 
see  much  better  in  the  night  than  we  do.  They  are  the  prop- 
erty of  Colonel  Skipwith,  of  Cumberland.  The  fourth  is  a  negro 
woman,  whose  parents  came  from  Guinea,  and  had  three  other 
children,  who  were  of  their  own  color.  She  is  freckled,  and  her 
eyesight  so  weak  that  she  is  obliged  to  wear  a  bonnet  in  the  sum- 
mer; but  it  is  better  in  the  night  than  day.  She  had  an  albino 
child,  by  a  black  man.  It  died  at  the  age  of  a  few  weeks.  These 
were  the  property  of  Colonel  Carter,  of  Albermarle.  A  sixth  in- 
stance is  a  woman,  the  property  of  a  Mr.  Butler,  near  Petersburg. 
She  is  stout  and  robust,  has  issue  a  daughter,  jet-black,  by  a  black 
roan.  I  am  not  informed  as  to  her  eyesight.  The  seventh  in- 
stance is  of  a  male  belonging  to  a  Mr.  Lee,  of  Cumberland.  His 
eyes  are  tremulous  and  weak.  He  is  tall  of  stature,  and  now  ad- 
vanced in  years.  He  is  the  only  male  of  the  albinos  which  have 
come  within  my  information.  Whatever  be  the  cause  of  the  dis- 
ease in  the  skin,  or  in  the  coloring  matter,  which  produces  this 
change,  it  seems  more  incident  to  the  female  than  male  sex.  To 
these  I  may  add  the  mention  of  a  negro  man  within  my  own 
knowledge,  born  black,  and  of  black  parents ;  on  whose  chin, 
•when  a  boy,  a  white  spot  appeared.  This  continued  to  increase 
till  he  became  a  man,  by  which  time  it  had  extended  over  his 
chin,  lips,  one  cheek,  the  under  jaw,  and  neck  on  that  side.  It  is 
of  the  albino  white,  without  any  mixture  of  red,  and  has  for  sev- 
eral years  been  stationary.  He  is  robust  and  healthy,  and  the 
change  of  color  was  not  accompanied  with  any  sensible  disease 
either  general  or  topical."  —  Jefferson's  Works,  Vol.  V1I1.,  page 
318. 


"  The  name  albino  was  originally  applied  by  the  Portuguese  to 
the  white  negroes  they  met  with  on  the  coast  of  Africa.    With 


ALBINOS)   ETC.  225 

the  features  of  the  negro  and  the  peculiar  woolly  form  of  the  hair, 
the  color  of  the  skin  was  white  like  pearl,  and  the  hair  resembled 
that  of  the  whitest  horse.  The  eye,  instead  of  the  jet-black  hue, 
which  seems  given  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  tropics  to  enable  them 
to  bear  the  intense  glare  of  the  sun,  was  like  that  of  the  white 
rabbit  and  ferret,  and  like  this  better  suited  for  use  in  the  moon- 
light, and  in  places  sheltered  from  the  light  of  day.  From  this 
inability  to  bear  the  light,  which,  however,  is  said  to  be  much  ex- 
aggerated, Linnaeus  called  the  albinos  nocturnal  men.  They 
generally  lack  the  strength  of  other  men ;  and  a  peculiar  harsh- 
ness of  the  skin,  such  as  is  noticed  in  cases  of  leprosy,  would  seem 
to  indicate  that  the  phenomenon  might  result  from  a  diseased  or- 
ganization. Yet  the  albinos  suffer  from  no  different  complaints 
from  other  persons.  As  in  their  physical  development,  they  are 
correspondingly  deficient  in  their  mental  capacity.  In  the  same 
family  several  children  are  sometimes  born  albinos.  They  are 
most  generally  of  the  male  sex.  .  .  .  It  is  not  understood  to 
what  ultimate  cause  the  phenomenon  is  to  be  attributed.  It  is 
observed  in  all  climates,  and  among  all  races  of  men.  Indeed,  it 
is  not  limited  to  man ;  for  individuals  possessing  the  same  pecu- 
liarities are  found  among  a  great  variety  of  the  warm-blooded 
animals,  and,  according  to  Geoffrey  St.  Hilaire,  in  fishes  and  some 
species  of  molluscous  animals  as  well.  Examples  are  not  very 
rare  among  the  feathered  tribe,  the  effect  being  seen  in  the  color 
of  the  plumage,  as  in  other  animals  in  that  of  the  hair.  The 
white  crow  and  the  white  blackbird  are  albinos.  Albino  mice  are 
not  very  uncommon.  Blumenbach  notices  the  feebleness  of  their 
eyes,  and  their  disposition  to  avoid  the  light,  by  their  closing  their 
eyelids  even  in  the  twilight.  The  white  elephants  of  India  are 
venerated  by  the  natives,  who  believe  them  to  be  animated  with 
the  souls  of  their  ancient  kings.  In  the  human  race,  perhaps,  more 
albinos  are  to  be  found  among  the  negroes  than  among  any  other 
people;  but  this  may  be  owing  to  the  peculiarities  being  with 
them  more  prominent,  and  attracting  more  attention.  One  of  the 
kings  of  the  Ashantees  is  said  to  have  had  particular  regard  for 
these  people,  and  collected  around  him  about  one  hundred  of 
them.  According  to  Humboldt,  albinos  are  more  common  among 
nations  of  dark  skin,  and  inhabiting  hot  climates.  In  the  copper- 
colored  races  they  are  more  rare,  and  still  more  so  among  the 
whites."  —  Neio  American  Cyclopaedia,  Vol.  /.,  page  284. 


226  ALBINOS,   ETC. 

"  Albinos  may  be  found  in  almost  every  community  in  Southern 
Guinea.  Everywhere  they  are  regarded  as  somewhat  sacred,  and 
their  persons  are  considered  inviolable.  On  no  condition  what- 
ever would  a  man  strike  one  of  them.  Generally  they  are  very 
mild  ;  and  I  have  never  heard  of  their  taking  advantage  of  their 
acknowledged  inviolability.  In  features  they  are  not  unlike  the 
rest  of  their  race,  but  their  complexion  is  very  nearly  a  pure 
white,  their  hair  of  the  ordinary  texture,  but  of  a  cream  color, 
and  their  eyes  are  gray,  and  always  in  motion."  —  Wilson's  Africa, 
page  311. 


"At  the  mouth  of  the  Brass  Kiver,  when  an  albino  girl  is  sacri- 
ficed, the  officiator  at  this  ceremony  is  an  old  man  named  Onteroo. 
He  has  an  enormous  tuberosity  on  the  back  of  his  head  ;  but  wheth- 
er his  divinity  is  believed  to  exist  in  this  or  not,  my  informant 
cannot  say.  Several  canoes  accompany  him  and  the  victim,  who, 
it  seems,  is  quite  satisfied  with  her  fate,  as  she  is  indoctrinated 
with  the  idea  that  her  future  destiny  is  to  be  married  to  a  white 
man.  As  soon  as  they  reach  the  bar,  the  canoes  are  all  turned 
with  their  heads  homewards ;  the  word  is  given,  and  the  girl  is 
thrown  into  the  water,  with  a  weight  round  her  neck  to  prevent 
her  floating,  thus  obviating  the  possibility  of  an  escape." — Ten 
Years'  Wanderings  among  the  Ethiopians,  by  Thomas  J.  Nutchinson, 
F.  R.  O.  S. 


"  A  curious  superstition  is  connected  with  Parrot  Island,  and  is 
observed  with  religious  punctuality  by  the  natives  of  Old  Kalabar, 
on  the  occasion  of  need  arising  from  its  performance.  Whenever 
a  scarcity  of  European  trading  ships  exists,  or  is  apprehended, 
the  Duketown  authorities  are  accustomed  to  take  an  albino  child 
of  their  own  race,  and  offer  it  up  as  a  sacrifice,  at  Parrot  Island, 
to  the  God  of  the  white  man."  —  Hutchinson's  Western  Africa, 
page  112. 


PRE-EMINENCE   OF  THE    WHITE  RACES.  227 


CHAPTER    XXXIII. 

INCREASING    PRE-EMINENCE    AND    PREDOMINANCE    OF    THE 
WHITE    RACES. 

"  THE  Caucasian  race,  to  which  we  belong,  is  distinguished  by 
the  beauty  of  the  oval  formed  by  his  head,  varying  in  complexion 
and  the  color  of  the  hair.  To  this  variety,  the  most  highly  civil- 
ized nations,  and  those  which  have  generally  held  all  others  in 
subjection,  are  indebted  for  their  origin.  .  .  .  The  race  from 
which  we  are  descended  has  been  called  Caucasian,  because  tra- 
dition and  the  filiation  of  nations  seem  to  refer  its  origin  to  that 
gi'oup  of  mountains  situated  between  the  Caspian  and  Black  Seas, 
whence,  as  from  a  centre,  it  has  been  extended  like  the  radii  of  a 
circle.  Various  nations  in  the  vicinity  of  Caucasus,  the  Georgians 
and  Circassians,  are  still  considered  the  handsomest  on  earth."  — 
Cuvier's  Animal  Kingdom,  page  50. 


"  Let  us  raise  ourselves  higher  still,  and  pass  into  the  province 
of  man  himself.  .  .  .  The  white  race  is  distinguished  above 
them  all ;  the  most  perfect  type  of  humanity ;  the  race  best  en- 
dowed with  the  gifts  of  intelligence,  and  with  the  profound  moral 
and  religious  sentiment  that  brings  man  near  to  Him  of  whom  he 
is  the  earthly  image.  To  this  race  belong,  without  exception,  all 
the  nations  of  high  civilization,  the  truly  historical  nations ;  tkis 
still  represents  the  highest  degree  of  progress  attained  by  man- 
kind.1' —  Arnold  Guyot.  Earth  and  Man,  page  228. 


"  Let  us  take  the  head  of  a  Caucasian.  What  strikes  us  imme- 
diately is  the  regularity  of  the  features,  the  grace  of  the  lines,  the 
perfect  harmony  of  all  the  figure.  The  head  is  oval ;  no  part  is 
too  prominent  beyond  the  others ;  nothing  salient  nor  angular 
disturbs  the  softness  of  the  lines  that  round  it.  The  face  is  di- 
vided into  three  equal  parts  by  the  line  of  the  eyes  and  that  of  the 
mouth.  The  eyes  are  lai-ge,  well  cut,  not  too  near  the  nose  nor 
too  far  from  it ;  their  axis  is  placed  on  a  single  straight  line,  at 


228  PRE-EMINENCE   OF  THE   WHITE  RACES. 

right  angles  with  the  line  of  the  nose.  The  facial  angle  is  ninety 
degrees.  The  stature  is  tall,  lithe,  well  proportioned ;  the  shoul- 
ders neither  too  broad  nor  too  narrow.  The  length  of  the  ex- 
tended arms  is  equal  to  the  whole  height  of  the  body ;  in  one 
word,  all  the  proportions  reveal  the  perfect  harmony  which  is  the 
essence  of  beauty.  Such  is  the  type  of  the  white  race,  —  the 
Caucasian,  as  it  has  been  agreed  to  call  it,  — the  most  pure,  the 
most  perfect  type  of  humanity."  —  Arnold  Ouyot.  Earth  and 
Man,  page  255. 


"  Asia  has  yielded  to  Europe  the  sceptre  of  civilization  for  two 
thousand  years.  At  the  present  day,  Europe  is  still  unquestion- 
ably the  first  of  the  civilizing  continents.  Nowhere  on  the  sur- 
face of  our  planet  has  the  mind  of  man  risen  to  a  sublimer  height ; 
nowhere  has  man  known  so  well  how  to  subdue  nature,  and  to 
make  her  the  instrument  of  intelligence.  The  nations  of  Europe 
represent  not  only  the  highest  intellectual  growth  which  the  human 
race  has  attained  at  any  epoch,  but  they  rule  already  over  nearly 
every  part  of  the  globe,  and  are  preparing  to  push  their  conquests 
further  still."  —  Arnold  Ouyot.  Earth  and  Man,  page  31. 


"  The  establishment  of  European  civilization  in  the  New  World, 
which  has  more  than  doubled  the  territorial  extent  of  the  culti- 
vated nations,  prepares  an  epoch  of  aggrandizement  more  rapid 
still.  The  two  Americas,  situated  between  the  other  four  conti- 
nents, seem  destined  to  become,  in  their  turn,  a  new  centre  of 
action,  or  a  point  of  support  for  the  establishment  of  easy  and 
more  rapid  relations  with  all  the  nations  of  the  world,  and 
the  irresistible  logic  of  facts  passing  under  our  eyes  compels  us 
to  believe  that,  during  the  epoch  which  is  preparing,  the  boun- 
daries of  the  domain  of  the  civilized  world  can  only  be  those  of 
the  globe  itself."  —  Arnold  Guyot.  Earth  and  Man,  page  328. 


"  We  belong  to  the  Anglican  race,  which  carries  Anglican 
principles  and  liberty  over  the  globe,  because,  wherever  it 
moves,  liberal  institutions  and  a  common  law  full  of  manly  rights 
and  instinct  with  the  principle  of  an  expansive  life,  accompany  it. 


PRE-EMINENCE   OF  THE    WHITE  RACES.  229 

We  belong  to  that  race  whoso  obvious  task  it  is,  among  other 
proud  and  sacred  tasks,  to  rear  and  spread  civil  liberty  over  vast 
regions  in  every  part  of  the  earth,  on  continent  and  isle.  We 
belong  to  that  tribe  which  alone  has  the  word  Self-Government." 
—  Francis  Lieber.  Civil  Liberty  and  Self-  Government,  page  21. 


"  There  are  many  nations  and  tribes  which  have  already  dis- 
appeared from  the  earth,  because  they  did  not  resist  the  power  of 
move  powerful  nations,  or  were  unable  to  become  powerful  them- 
selves. We  do  not  grieve  over  the  fall  of  the  Celts,  because  we 
ourselves  destroyed  them.  We  look  on  with  tranquillity  as  the 
aboriginal  people  of  America  decay  and  pass  away,  while  our  own 
race  is  the  sole  cause  of  their  destruction." — Burmeister's  Black 
Man,  page  13. 


"The  Negro  or  African,  with  his  black  skin,  woolly  hair,  and 
compressed,  elongated  skull ;  the  Mongolian  of  Eastern  Asia  and 
America,  with  his  olive  complexion,  broad  and  all  but  beardless 
face,  oblique  eyes,  and  square  skull ;  and  the  Caucasian  of  West- 
ern Asia  and  Europe,  with  his  fair  skin  and  face,  full  brow,  and 
rounded  skull ;  such,  as  every  school-boy  knows,  are  the  three 
great  types  or  varieties  into  which  naturalists  have  divided  the  in- 
habitants of  our  planet.  Accepting  this  rough  initial  conception 
of  a  world  peopled  everywhere,  more  or  less  completely,  with 
these  three  varieties  of  human  beings  or  their  combinations,  the 
historian  is  able,  in  virtue  of  it,  to  announce  one  important  fact  at 
the  very  outset,  to  wit,  that,  up  to  the  present  moment,  the  des- 
tinies of  the  species  appear  to  have  been  carried  forward  almost 
exclusively  by  its  Caucasian  variety."  —  North  British  Review, 
August,  1849. 


"We  now  come  to  the  typical  Caucasian  family,  which  em- 
braces the  greatest  cerebral  development  in  width  and  depth, 
combined  with  the  highest  form  of  beauty,  strength,  and  power  of 
endurance,  coupled  with  a  nervous  system  less  swayed  by  impulse. 
In  this  group  is  found  the  most  perfect  notions  of  the  ideal  beauti- 
ful, of  relative  proportion  in  art  and  in  literature,  of  logic  and  of 
20 


230  PRE-EMINENCE   OF  THE    WHITE  RACES. 

the  mathematical  sciences  in  general.  ...  It  is  here  that 
female  beauty  is  possessed  of  the  highest  human  loveliness,  grace, 
and  delicacy ;  and  the  manly  character  attains  the  most  majestic 
and  venerable  aspect."  —  Hamilton  Smith's  Natural  History  of  the 
Human  Species,  page  401. 


"  The  Caucasian  form  of  man  combines,  above  the  rest,  strength 
of  limb  with  activity  of  motion,  enabling  it  to  endure  the  great- 
est vicissitudes  of  temperature  in  all  climates;  to  emigrate,  colo- 
nize, and  multiply  in  them,  with  the  sole  exception  of  the  positive 
extremes.  His  longevity  is  more  generally  protracted,  even  in 
the  midst  of  the  enervating  habits  of  high  civilization ;  his  solid 
fibre  gives  a  reasoned  self-possession  and  daring  in  vicissitudes, 
arising  from  the  passions,  from  accident  or  from  the  elements ; 
and  his  reflective  powers  find  expedients  to  brave  danger  with 
self-possession  and  impunity.  The  moral  and  intellectual  charac- 
ter we  find  to  be  in  unison  with  his  structure ;  the  reasoning  pow- 
ers outstripping  the  mere  process  of  comparing  sensations,  and 
showing,  in  volition,  more  elevated  thought,  more  reasoning,  jus- 
tice, and  humanity ;  he  alone  of  all  the  races  of  mankind  has  pro- 
duced examples  of  free  and  popular  institutions,  and  his  physical 
characteristics  have  maintained  them  in  social  life.  By  means  of 
his  logical  intellect,  he  has  arrived  at  ideas  requisite  for  the  ac- 
quisition of  abstract  truths ;  resorting  to  actual  experiment,  he 
fixed  bases  whereon  to  build  demonstrable  inferences,  when  the 
positive  facts  are  not  otherwise  shown ;  he  invented  simple  arbi- 
trary characters  to  represent  words  and  musical  sounds ;  and  a 
few  signs,  which,  nevertheless,  denote,  in  their  relative  positions, 
all  the  possible  combinations  of  numbers  and  quantity ;  he  has 
measured  time  and  distance,  making  the  sidereal  bodies  unerring 
guides  to  mark  locality  and  give  nautical  direction ;  he  has  ascend- 
ed to  the  skies,  descended  into  the  deep,  and  mastered  the  powers 
of  lightning.  By  mechanical  researches,  the  bearded  man  has  as- 
suaged human  toil,  multiplied  the  results  of  industry,  and  created 
a  velocity  of  locomotion  superior  to  the  flight  of  birds ;  by  his 
chemical  discoveries,  he  has  modified  bodily  pain,  and  produced 
numberless  discoveries  useful  in  medicine,  in  arts,  and  manufac- 
tures. He  has  founded  a  sound  and  connected  system  of  the  sci- 
ences in  general,  and  acquired  a  critical  literature;  while,  for 


PRE-EMINENCE    OF  THE    WHITE   RACES.  231 

more  than  three  thousand  years,  he  has  been  the  principal  pos- 
sessor of  all  human  knowledge  and  the  asserter  of  fixed  laws. 
He  has  instituted  all  the  great  religious  systems  in  the  world,  and 
to  his  stock  has  been  vouchsafed  the  glory  and  the  conditions  of 
revelation.  The  Caucasian  type  alone  continues  in  rapid  devel- 
opment, covering  with  nations  every  congenial  latitude,  and  por- 
tending at  no  distant  era  to  bear  rule  in  every  region,  if  not  by 
physical  superiority,  at  least  by  that  dominion,  which  religion, 
science,  and  enterprise  confer."  —  Hamilton  Smith's  Natural  His- 
tory of  the  Human  Species,  page  371. 


"  The  Saxon  or  Teutonic  man  is  a  lover  of  liberty.  His  is  the 
only  race  that  does  love  it,  and  has  been  able  to  acquire  and  keep 
it.  He  loves  instinctively  personal  liberty,  power  over  himself, 
freedom  from  the  will  of  another.  He  loves  also  political  liberty ; 
that  is  to  say,  a  share  of  political  power,  so  that  he  may  consent 
to  any  control  to  which  he  does  submit,  and  form  himself  a  part 
of  the  government  he  obeys.  To  such  a  man  slavery  in  the  ab- 
stract is  revolting;  but  his  love  of  liberty  is,  in  part,  love  of 
power.  He  sympathizes,  therefore,  with  the  oppressed,  provided 
he  be  not  the  oppressor,  and  would  gladly  break  all  chains  of 
bondage,  except  those  which  he  imposes.  The  characteristics  of 
the  Saxon,  his  practical  ability  and  faculty  for  abstract  thought; 
his  passion  for  conquest  and  power,  and  his  love  of  liberty,  truth, 
and  justice,  whilst  they  make  him  a  colonizer  and  a  ruler,  also 
render  his  rule  beneficent.  Churches,  charities,  law,  order,  indus- 
try, wealth,  arts,  and  letters,  follow  his  footsteps.  .  .  .  The 
Saxon  loves  power ;  his  is  the  conquering,  colonizing  race. 
Wherever  he  goes,  —  to  India,  to  China,  to  Australia,  or  America, 
—  he  subdues  and  governs  the  weaker  and  lower  races."  —  Fish- 
er's Laws  of  Race,  page  16. 


"  No  delusion  has  so  little  foundation  as  that  assumed  law  of 
climate  which  would  confine  the  white  races  to  the  latitude  of  the 
free  States  of  this  Union.  But  when  it  is  insisted  upon  in  refer- 
ence to  our  own  country,  where  the  facts  which  overthrow  it  are 
familiar  to  everybody,  it  is  not  wonderful  that  it  is  kept  up  in 
reference  to  countries  of  which  we  know  less.  When  it  is  denied 


232  PRE-EMINENCE   OF  THE   WHITE  RACES. 

that  the  Southern  States  can  be  occupied  by  anybody  but  negroes, 
two-thirds  of  their  inhabitants  being  actually  whites,  and  the  in- 
crease of  the  whites  being  greater  than  that  of  the  blacks,  what 
absurdities  may  not  be  maintained  ? "  —  Westoris  Progress  of 
Slavery,  page  159. 


"  Humboldt  observes  that  the  Caucasian  races  are  distinguished 
by  their  flexibility  of  organization  in  respect  to  climate ;  and  of 
this  we  have  a  remarkable  instance  in  the  French,  who  have  long 
occupied  the  lower  Mississippi  and  the  most  northerly  of  the  Can- 
adas,  and  without  any  loss  of  their  original  vigor  in  either  of  those 
widely  separated  latitudes.  The  descendants  of  that  race,  ex- 
pelled from  Acadia,  suffered  a  dispersion  equally  wide,  being 
found  in  the  Carolinas,  on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  on  the  upper 
St.  John  in  the  latitude  of  Quebec.  If  there  are  malarious  re-' 
gions  at  the  South,  on  the  coasts  of  the  Atlantic  and  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  they  are  of  limited  extent,  and,  as  a  whole,  the  white  race 
exhibits  as  much  physical  vigor  at  the  South  as  at  the  North,  and, 
in  the  opinion  of  many  observers,  decidedly  more."  —  Weston's 
Progress  of  Slavery,  page  160. 


"  I  believe  that  the  greatness  or  abjectness  of  every  people  is 
due  primarily,  if  not  solely,  to  one  cause,  —  race.  Indeed  seeing, 
as  it  appears  to  me,  that  the  manifestation  of  the  immutable  qual- 
ities of  race  is  the  one  great  fact  of  history ;  that  the  annals  of  the 
world  teach  us  that  the  po\ver  of  race  is  the  one  master  and  pos- 
itive force,  the  operation  of  which  can  be  calculated  upon  as  a 
certainty ;  that  it  is  the  primal  law  of  humanity ;  that  it  is  work- 
ing as  irresistibly  and  with  action  as  positive  and  simple  as  it 
worked  thousands  of  years  ago ;  that  at  this  very  day  it  is  break- 
ing the  bonds  of  treaties  and  destroying  kingdoms  to  make  nations, 
—  to  deny  its  force,  or  to  rate  it  at  less  than  paramount  importance, 
seems  to  me  like  calculating  eclipses  or  building  houses  with  like 
disrespect  to  the  force  and  law  of  gravitation."  —  Richard  Grant 
White.  Letter  to  the  London  Spectator,  1865. 


"Most  distinctly  do  I  deny  that  this  country  is  great  only  be- 


PRE-EMINENCE   OF  THE    WHITE  RACES.  233 

cause  it  is  '  spacious  in  the  possession  of  dirt ; '  because,  like  Rus- 
sia, it  is  vast,  or  even  because,  like  France,  it  is  rich  and  warlike. 
Its  real  greatness,  I  believe,  with  a  belief  having  the  clearness  of 
conviction  and  the  earnestness  of  faith,  has  its  sole  origin  in  the 
qualities  of  the  race  by  which  the  land  was  settled  and  reclaimed, 
and  by  which  its  government  and  its  society  were  framed."  — 
Richard  Grant  White.  Letter  to  the  London  Spectator,  1865. 


."  It  is  the  strictly  white  races  that  are  bearing  onward  the  flam- 
beau of  civilization,  as  displayed  in  the  Germanic  families  alone." 
—  Josiah  Clark  Nott.  Types  of  Mankind,  page  405. 


"  History,  tradition,  monuments,  osteological  remains,  every 
literary  record  and  scientific  induction,  all  show  that  races  have 
occupied  substantially  the  same  zones  or  provinces  from  time  im- 
memorial. Since  the  discovery  of  the  mariner's  compass,  mankind 
have  been  more  distui'bed  in  their  primitive  seats ;  and,  with  the 
increasing  facilities  of  communication  by  land  and  sea,  it  is  im- 
possible to  predict  what  changes  commg  ages  may  bring  forth. 
The  Caucasian  races,  which  have  always  been  the  representatives 
of  civilization,  are  those  alone  that  have  extended  over  and  colo- 
nized all  parts  of  the  globe  ;  and  much  of  this  is  the  work  of  the 
last  three  hundred  years.  The  Creator  has  implanted  in  this 
group  of  races  an  instinct  that,  in  spite  of  themselves,  drives  them 
through  all  difficulties  to  carry  out  their  great  mission  of  civilizing 
the  earth.  It  is  not  reason  or  philanthropy  which  urges  them  on, 
but  it  is  destiny.  AVhen  we  see  great  divisions  of  the  human  fam- 
ily increasing  in  numbers,  spreading  in  all  directions,  encroaching 
by  degrees  upon  all  other  races  wherever  they  "can  live  and  pros- 
per, and  gradually  supplanting  inferior  types,  is  it  not  reasonable 
to  conclude  that  they  are  fulfilling  a  law  of  nature."  —  Josiah  Clark 
Nott.  Types  of  Mankind,  page  77. 


"  No  two  distinctly  marked  races  can  dwell  together  on  equal 
terms.     Some  races,  moreover,  appear  destined  to  live  and  pros- 
per for  a  time,  until  the  destroying  race  comes  which  is  to  exter- 
minate and  supplant  them.   Observe  how  the  aborigines  of  Amer- 
20* 


234  PRE-EMINENCE    OF  THE    WHITE   RACES. 

ica  are  fading  away  before  the  exotic  races  of  Europe.  Those 
groups  of  races  heretofore  comprehended  under  the  generic  term 
Caucasian,  have  in  all  ages  been  the  rulers ;  and  it  requires  no 
prophetic  eye  to  see  that  they  are  destined  eventually  to  conquer 
and  hold  every  foot  of  the  globe  where  climate  does  not  interpose 
an  impenetrable  barrier.  No  philanthropy,  no  legislation,  no 
missionary  labors,  can  change  this  law ;  it  is  written  in  man's  na- 
ture by  the  hand  of  his  Creator." — Josiah  Clark  Nott.  Types  of 
Mankind,  page  79. 


"When  we  are  free  from  this  plague-spot  of  slavery, — the 
curse  to  our  industry,  our  education,  our  politics,  and  our  i-elig- 
ion,  —  we  shall  increase  more  rapidly  in  number,  and  still  more 
abundantly  be  rich.  The  South  will  be  as  the  North,  —  active, 
intelligent,  —  Virginia  rich  as  New  York,  the  Cai'olinas  as  active 
as  Massachusetts.  Then  by  peaceful  purchase,  the  Anglo-Saxon 
may  acquire  the  rest  of  this  North  American  continent.  The 
Spaniards  will  make  nothing  of  it.  Nay,  we  may  honorably  go 
further  south,  and  possess  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  slopes  of  the 
Northern  continent,  extending  the  area  of  freedom  at  every  step. 
We  may  carry  thither  the  Anglo-Saxon  vigor  and  enterprise,  the 
old  love  of  liberty,  the  love  also  of  law;  the  best  institutions  of 
the  present  age,  —  ecclesiastical,  political,  social,  domestic.  Then 
what  a  nation  we  shall  one  day  become  !  America,  the  mother  of 
a  thousand  Anglo-Saxon  States,  tropical  and  temperate,  on  both 
sides  of  the  equator,  may  behold  the  Mississippi  and  the  Amazon 
uniting  their  waters,  the  drainage  of  two  vast  continents,  in  the 
Mediterranean  of  the  Western  World ;  may  count  her  children  at 
last  by  hundreds  of  millions,  —  and  among  them  all  behold  no 
tyrant  and  no  slave ! "  —  Theodore  Parker.  Speedi  at  New  York, 
May  12,  1854. 


"The  Caucasian  differs  from  all  other  races;  he  is  humane,  he 
is  civilized,  and  progresses.  He  conquers  with  his  head  as  well 
as  with  his  hand.  It  is  intellect,  after  all,  that  conquers,  —  not 
the  strength  of  a  man's  arm.  The  Caucasian  has  been  often  mas- 
ter of  the  other  races, — never  their  slave.  He  has  carried  his 
religion  to  other  races,  but  never  taken  theirs.  In  history  all  re- 


PRE-EMINENCE   OF  THE   WHITE  RACES.  235 

ligions  are  of  Caucasian  origin.  All  the  great  limited  forms  of 
monai-chies  are  Caucasian.  Republics  are  Caucasian.  All  the 
great  sciences  are  of  Caucasian  oi-igin ;  all  inventions  are  Cauca- 
sian ;  literature  and  romance  come  of  the  same  stock ;  all  the  great 
poets  are  of  Caucasian  origin ;  Moses,  Luther,  Jesus  Christ,  Zo- 
roaster, Buddha,  Pythagoras,  were  Caucasian.  No  other  race  can 
bring  up  to  memory  such  celebrated  names  as  the  Caucasian  race. 
The  Chinese  philosopher,  Confucius,  is  an  exception  to  the  rule. 
To  the  Caucasian  race  belong  the  Arabian,  Persian,  Hebrew,  Egyp- 
tian ;  and  all  the  European  nations  are  descendants  of  the  Cau- 
casian race."  —  Theodore  Parker.  Quoted  in  Types  of  Mankind, 
page  462. 


"  If  the  ancestors  of  the  present  three  millions  of  slaves  had 
never  been  brought  here,  —  if  their  descendants  had  never  been 
propagated  here,  for  the  supposed  value  of  their  services,  their 
places  would  have  been  supplied  by  white  laborers,  by  men  of 
the  Caucasian  race,  —  by  freemen.  Instead  of  the  three  millions 
slaves,  of  all  colors,  we  should  doubtless  now  have  at  least  three 
million  white,  free-born  citizens,  adding  to  the  real  prosperity  of 
the  country,  and  to  the  power  of  the  republic.  If  the  South  had 
not  had  slaves  to  do  their  work  for  them,  they  would  have  become 
ingenious  and  inventive,  like  the  North,  and  would  have  enlisted 
the  vast  forces  of  nature  in  their  service,  —  wind  and  fire  and 
water  and  steam  and  lightning,  the  mighty  energies  of  gravita- 
tion and  the  subtle  forces  of  chemistry." — Horace  Mann.  House 
of  Representatives,  February  23,  1849. 


•'  It  has  been  said  that  whosoever  would  see  the  Eastern  world 
before  it  turns  into  a  Western  world  must  make  his  visit  soon,  be- 
cause steamboats  and  omnibuses,  commerce,  and  all  the  arts  of 
Europe,  are  extending  themselves  fi-om  Egypt  to  Suez,  from  Suez 
to  the  Indian  Seas,  and  from  the  Indian  Seas  all  over  the  explored 
regions  of  the  still  farther  East.  ...  I  only  can  see  that  on 
this  continent  all  is  to  be  Anglo-American  from  Pymouth  Rock  to 
Pacific  Sea,  from  the  North  Pole  to  California.  That  is  certain ; 
and  in  the  Eastern  world,  I  only  see  that  you  can  hardly  place  a 
finger  on  the  map  of  the  world  and  be  an  inch  from  an  English 


236  PRE-EMINENCE   OF  THE   WHITE  RACES. 

settlement.  If  there  be  anything  in  the  supremacy  of  races,  the 
experiment  now  in  progress  will  develop  it.  If  there  be  any 
truth  in  the  idea  that  those  who  issued  from  the  great  Caucasian 
fountain,  and  spread  over  Europe,  are  to  react  on  India  and  on 
Asia,  and  to  act  on  the  whole  Western  world,  it  may  not  be  for  us, 
nor  our  children,  nor  our  grandchildren  to  see  it,  but  it  will  be 
for  our  descendants  of  some  generation  to  see  the  extent  of  that 
progress  and  dominion  of  the  favored  races.  For  myself,  I  be- 
lieve there  is  no  limit  fit  to  be  assigned  to  it  by  the  human  mind, 
because  I  find  at  work  everywhere,  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic, 
under  various  forms  and  degrees  of  restriction  on  the  one  hand, 
and  under  various  degrees  of  motive  and  stimulus  on  the  other 
hand,  in  these  branches  of  a  common  race,  the  great  principle  of 
the  freedom  of  human  thought,  and  the  respectability  of  individual 
character."—  Webster's  Works,  Vol.  IL,page  214. 


APPENDIX  I. 


RADICALISM  IN  THE  SOUTH: 

ITS  BLACK  AND  BLIGHTING  SWAY. 


BY  HINTON   ROWAN   HELPER, 
Author  of"  The  Impending  Crisis  of  the  South." 

ASHEVILLE,  North  Carolina,  November  11, 1867. 
To  the  Editors  of  the  National  Intelligencer: 

In  the  accompanying  communication,  addressed  "To  the  Good 
People  of  the  Old  Free  States,"  it  is  not  at  all  unlikely  that  I  have 
said  some  things  to  which  both  you  and  many  of  your  readers  may 
take  exception.  It  has  not  been  any  part  of  my  purpose  either  to 
please  or  to  displease  anybody,  but  simply  to  tell  the  truth,  arid  to 
say,  so  far  as  I  have  given  expression  to  my  views,  precisely  what 
I  think.  If,  in  your  opinion,  the  publication  of  the  article  would 
promote,  even  in  part  only,  the  object  at  which  I  have  aimed,  — 
namely,  the  imparting  to  the  public  mind  of  the  North  a  more 
accurate  and  adequate  knowledge  of  the  actual  and  prospective 
condition  of  things  at  the  South,  under  the  black  and  blighting 
sway  of  Radicalism,  —  you  may,  if  you  please,  publish  it  in  the 
columns  of  the  "  Intelligencer."  Deeply  impressed  with  the  impor- 
tance, at  all  times,  of  earnest  and  honest  appeals  to  men's  reason, 
rather  than  to  their  passions  or  their  prejudices,  I  have  purposely 
delayed  writing  what  I  have  here  written  until  after  the  partial 
subsidence  of  the  general  excitement  and  confusion  which  have 
but  so  recently  attended  the  great  elections  in  many  of  the  whiter 
and  (therefore)  better  parts  of  our  common  country. 

H.  R.  H. 

To  the  Good  People  of  the  Old  Free  States  • 

More  than  ten  years  ago,  as  many  of  you  will  recollect,  I,  a  Carolinian,  made  a 
special  appeal  to  your  enlightened  and  patriotic  judgments  in  behalf  of  u  large 
majority  of  the  white  people  of  the  Southern  States,  —  the  non-slaveholdii'g  whites, 
—  who.  whether  they  knew  it  or  not,  were  greatly  oppressed  and  impoverished  by 
the  unfortunate  existence  among  us  of  negroes  and  negro  slavery.  The  generous 
hearing  which  you  then  accorded  to  me  inspires  me  with  confidence  that  you  are 
again  prepared  to  listen  to  any  protest,  or  complaint,  or  other  statement  from  me, 
that  has  for  its  basis  truth  and  justice.  Thus  surmising,  I  respectfully  request  that 
you  will  favor  me  with  your  attention  while  I  explain,  or  while  I  endeavor  to 
explain,  that  the  great  mass  of  the  poor  whites  here,  in  whose  behalf  I  have 
especially  and  persistently  written,  are  still  enthralled;  and  that,  within  the  last 
few  years,  the  condition  of  their  thraldom  has  been  so  aggravated,  that  it  is  now 
in  constant  process  of  becoming  worse  and  worse,  with  the  further  and  appalling 
danger,  under  Radical  misrule,  of  being  rendered  unparalleled  and  perpetual. 

Before  entering  directly  into  this  subject,  however,  permit  me  to  indulge  in  a 
few  general  but  pertinent  reflections.  Although  chiefly  for  the  sake  of  the  whites, 

237 


238  APPENDIX. 

yet  It  was  not  alone  for  their  sakes  that  I  was,  and  am,  and  always  will  be,  hostile 
to  slavery.  I  believed,  many  years  since,  as  I  believe  now,  that  there  Is  in  slavery 
itself,  and  more  especially  "in  negro  slavery,  a  moral  and  social  guilt  of  no  less 
revolting  magnitude  than  the  political  blunders  which  are  also  a  part  of  Its  base 
offspring.  I  believed  then,  and  I  believed  riglitly,  I  think,  that  the  negroes  ought 
to  be  freed,  and  then  speedily  colonized  somewhere  beyond  the  present  limits  of 
the  United  .States.  I  do  not  believe,  and  never  did  believe,  that  the  two  races  — 
the  white  and  the  black — widely  and  irreconcilably  different  as  they  are  in  their 
natures,  ought  ever  to  inhabit  "the  same_  country.  Living  in  close  association, 
living  together  beneath  the  same  roof,  living  in  juxtaposition  within  the  acknowl- 
edged limits  of  any  hamlet,  village,  town,  or  city,  or  even  within  the  boundaries 
of  any  farm  or  plantation,  as  they  did  live  under  the  system  of  slavery,  and  as  they 
Btill  live  under  the  condition  of  freedom,  is,  as  I  solemnly  believe  (particularly  as 
it  affects  the  whites),  a  gross  shame,  a  shocking  indecency,  and  a  glaring  crime. 
I  believe  that  the  whole  negro  race  is  a  weak  and  worthless  race,  an  effete  and 
time-worn  race,  which,  like  the  Indian  race,  is  no  longer  fit,  if  ever  fit  for  any 


properly  provided  for,  and  then  prudently  and  suitably  let  alone,  Providence  wilf 
MMiii  cut  them  off,  root  and  branch,  and  thus  happily  rid  the  earth  of  at  least  the 
bulk  of  the  superannuated  and  inutile  organisms  which  so  unpropitiously  encumber 
it  In  the  current  epoch. 

While  one  of  the  inevitable  effects  of  enduring  any  manner  of  association  or 
relation  between  the  two  races  is  the  partial  elevation  of  the  blacks,  the  other  is 
only  the  too  positive  and  irremediable  degradation  of  the  whites.  The  influence 
of  the  white  on  the  black  Is  always  for  good  to  the  black  at  the  expense  of  the 
•white:  the  influence  of  the  black  on  the  white  is  always  bad  for  the  white;  and 
the  white  is  again,  and  invariably,  the  victim.  In  anything  and  in  everything 
•wherein  the  white  people  of  the  .South  are  worse  than  the  people  of  the  North,  and 
in  whatever  mental,  moral,  or  material  interest  we  of  the  .South  are  less  advanced 
than  you  of  the  North,  the  delinquencies  or  the  deficiencies,  as  the  case  maybe,  are 
alone  attributable  to  the  profitless  and  pernicious  presence  of  the  negroes  among  us. 

In  quality  of  population,  the  great  difference  between  the  North  ami  the  South 
is  simply  this  :  while  we  here  are  cursed  with  the  black  imps  of  Africa,  you  there 
are  blessed  with  the  white  genii  of  Kurope.  What  1  would  do  to  bring  the  south 
up  to  an  honorable  and  ever-friendly  equality  with  the  North  (and  what  must  be 
done  sooner  or  later,  or  the  object  thus  aimed  at  will  never  be  accomplished),  is  to 
prepare  the  way,  on  the  one  hand,  for  the  egress  of  all  our  imps  of  darkness  and 
of  death,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  to  open  wide  the  way  for  the  ingress  of  your 
superabundant  genii  of  life  and  of  light.  I  contend,  then,  that,  in  order  to  in'stire 
the  true  safety  and  success  of  the  South,  in  order  to  maintain,  in  perpetuity,  the 
integrity  of  our  national  Union,  and  in  order  to  guarantee  uninterrupted  peace  and 
prosperity  throughout  the  greater  and  better  part  of  this  vast  continent,  we  must, 
with  as  little  delay  as  possible,  colonize  the  negroes  iu  Mexico,  or  elsewhere  out 
of  pur  own  country;  or,  a->  a  last  but  temporary  method  of  relief  from  their  baneful 
existence  among  ii«,  we  must  remove  them  all',  much  the  same  as  we  have  hitherto 
removed  certain  tribes  of  Indians,  into  one  or  more  of  the  South-bordering  States 
or  Territories  of  the  United  States. 

The  necessity  for  the  removal  and  colonization  of  the  negroes  was  as  plain  to  me 
ten  years  ago  as  it  is  to-day ;  but  I  foresaw  then,  and  I  see  now,  that  there  could 
be  no  general  nor  effectual  demand  raised  for  the  displacement  of  the  blacks  on 
the  one  hand,  and  for  the  filling  up  of  the  South  by  white  people  from  the  North 
and  from  Kurope  on  the  other,  until  after  slavery,  the  great  nursery  and  stronghold 
of  negroes,  should  first  be  abolished.  Kqually  did  I  foresee  then,  and  I  perceive 
now,  that,  in  a  state  of  freedom  and  self-dependence,  one  of  two  fatal  dilemmas 
would  certainly  befall  the  negro;  but  neither  of  which  dilemmas  was  ever  likely 
to  befall  him  so  long  as  he  had  the  benefit  of  guides  and  protectors  in  the  persons 
of  a  few  unfortunate  white  men,  his  masters,  who,  however,  as  is  well  known, 
guided  and  protected  him  as  an  easy  and  questionable  method  of  procuring  their 
own  bread  and  butter;  and  this,  too,  though  not  always  wilfully,  to  the  serious,  if 
not  irreparable,  detriment  of  the  great  majority  of  their  own  white  fellow-citizens. 
To  me  it  was  plain  then,  and  it  is  plain  now,  that  if  the  negro,  in  a  condition  of 
political  equality,  is  left  here,  he  will,  from  the  fated  and  complicated  causes  of 
neglect  and  hostility  on  the  part  of  the  whites,  gradually  die  out  and  disappear; 
but  this  not  without  entailing  on  the  whites  a  multiplicity  of  long-lasting  injuries 
and  calamities  meanwhile.  If  colonized,  whether  within  or  without  the  United 
States,  and  after  a  fair  but  final  amount  of  advice  and  assistance,  put  entirely  upon 
bis  own  resources,  —  as,  indeed,  it  is  but  right  and  proper  taut  he  should  have  been 


APPENDIX.  239 

put  long  ago, — his  doom,  it  is  also  plain,  would  be  equally  inevitable :  itwould  only 
be,  as  I  conscientiously  believe,  another  use  of  the  whites  as  instruments  to 
modify,  or  to  seemingly  modify,  the  indestructible  plan  of  Providence  for  extermi- 
nating the  negro. 

I  admit,  and,  at  the  same  time,  insist  upon  it,  that  men,  everywhere  and  at  all 
times,  should  be  exceedingly  careful  how  they  attempt  to  interpret  any  will  or 
purpose  of  Heaven.  Further,  1  will  say  that  I  do  not  believe  that  any  mere  man, 
like  any  one  of  you,  or  like  myself,  ever  did,  or  ever  will,  truly  interpret  or  explain 
the  exact  purpose  of  God  in  reference  to  anything  whatsoever,  except  only  and 
possibly  through  conjecture.  It  is  true,  that  in  years  gone  by  the  "  New  York 
Tribune"  and  several  other  gazettes  of  less  ability  and  weight,  seriously  proclaimed 
me  a  prophet;  but  I  deny  the  soft  impeachment,  and  respectfully  protest  against 
that  sort  of  infringement  and  libel  on  the  preeminent  prerogatives  of  the  ancient 
Hebrews.  The  exercise  of  common  sense  is  the  only  prophecy  with  which  I  have 
ever  yet  been  gifted ;  and  beyond  that,  in  matters  of  seership,  I  never  expect  to  be 
gifted.  In  this  respect,  any  and  every  other  rational  white  man  may  be,  and  ought 
to  be,  equally  gifted;  if  not  so  gifted,  it  is  because  he  is  a  mere  idler;  and  if  so,  he 
is,  for  that  reason,  highly  reprehensible  for  not  improving  and  disciplining  the 
mind  of  whatever  bent  or  capacity  which  a  mighty  and  merciful  God  has  been 
pleased  to  create  within  him.  If,  then,  we  may  seek  to  comprehend  and  interpret 
the  will  of  God  touching  any  one  or  more  of  the  several  races  of  mankind,  I  hesi- 
tate not  to  say  that,  in  my  humble  judgment,  the  efforts  which  the  Radical  and 
other  blind  and  fanatical  friends  of  the  negro  are  now  making  for  his  retention 
and  equality  among  us  are  directly  in  conflict  with  the  Divino  purpose,  and  are, 
therefore,  fragrantly  wrong  and  impiously  wicked.  To  what  end,  <>r  for  what  pur- 
pose, was  the  great  Columbus  and  nia  white-faced  and  Heaven-guided  successors 
in  maritime  discovery  safely  wafted  to  this  western  world  but  to  redeem  it  from 
the  fruitless  occupancy  and  from  the  wild  and  weird  desecration  of  the  savage 
Indian?  Why  was  Moses  and  his  compatriots  and  kinsman,  in  their  bloody  ag- 
gressions against  the  Canaanites,  not  only  permitted,  but  encouraged,  and  com- 
manded, to '•  leave  alive  none  that  breatheth,"  if  it  were  not  that  Jehovah  had 
ceased  to  have  a  use  for  those  who  had  already  accomplished  the  ends  for  which 
they  had  been  created  ?  If  we  see,  or  if  we  think  we  see,  a  purpose  on  the  part  ot 
the" Deity  to  cut  off  all  the  Canaanites  ot  old,  on  the  one  hand,  and  all  the  Indian 
tribes  of  the  three  great  Americas  and  their  adjacent  islands  of  modern  times,  on 
the  other,  it  is,  I  contend,  quite  as  easy  for  us  to  perceive  His  desire  and  purpose 
to  use  us,  whether  we  be  willing  or  not,  as  his  swift  avengers  against  the  negroes, 
both  in  America  and  in  Africa,  —  first  here  and  then  there;  for  even  before  we  get 
America  filled  up  with  the  white  races,  we  shall  need  Africa  as  a  new  continent 
for  the  enterprise  and  habitation  of  the  redundant  populations  of  Europe  and  of 
other  portions  of  tlie  white  world ;  and  then  the  negroes,  and  all  the  other  black 
and  bicolored  weaklings,  whether  in  Africa  or  elsewhere,  must  stand  aside,  or  be 
laid  low,  and  give  undisputed  and  permanent  place  to  their  white  superiors.  In 
this  way,  and  in  this  way  only,  can  this  g^reat  world  of  ours  ever  be  made  a  world 
given  to  the  worship  of  the  one  only  living  and  true  God;  and  in  no  other  way 
may  we  ever  reasonably  expect  to  find  the  mountains  and  the  valleys,  the  hill-tops 
and  the  dales,  the  glades  and  the  glens,  auspiciojjsly  dotted  over  with  schools  and 
with  colleges,  with  libraries  and  with  churches,  with  galleries  and  with  museums. 

liutfrom  this  cursory  reference  to  the  world  at  large,  both  as  to  its  realities 
and  its  possibilities,  let  us  come  back  fora  little  while  toNorth  Carolina,  and  to  the 
other  Southern  States.  And  just  here  I  want  to  show  how,  under  a  very  criminal 
public  policy  of  the  past,  and  under  a  most  atrocious  public  policy  of  the  present. 
a  large  majority  of  the  white  people  of  the  South  have  been,  and  are  still,  treated 
with  less  consideration,  with  less  favor,  and  with  less  justice,  than  if  they  were 
negroes.  In  other  words,  astounding  as  the  statement  may  appear,  it  is  neverthe 
less  true  —  dernonstrably  true  —  that  tlie  negroes  here,  very  many  of  them  at  least, 
have  hitherto  been  afforded  opportunities,  for  both  an  education  and  for  an 
easy  and  comfortable  livelihood,  far  superior  to  the  opportunities  which  were  gen- 
erally enjoyed  by  the  poorer  classes  of  white  people!  A  full  and  just  understand- 
ing of  this  cruel  and  flagitious  discrimination  in  favor  of  the  blacks  as  against  tht 
whites,  in  favor  of  the  incompetent  as  against  the  competent,  in  favor  of  the  vile 
as  against  the  virtuous,  should  make  the  blood  of  every  decent  and  respectabl* 
white  man,  between  Maine  and  Texas,  and  between  Florida  and  Oregon,  literally 
boil  with  indignation;  and  there  should  be  no  cessation  of  the  quick  and  forcible 
ebullition  of  his  vital  fluid,  until,  to  say  the  least,  the  worthy  whites  of  the  South 
are  at  last  allowed  a  fair  and  equal  chance  with  the  unworthy  blacks.  But  it  is 
just  this  fair  and  equal  chance  which  the  slaveholders,  in  the  time  of  slavery,  al- 
ways denied  to  the  great  majority  of  Southern  whites ;  and  it  is  precisely  thi« 
fair  and  equal  chance  which  is  now  meanly  and  treacherously,  and  with  increased 


240  APPENDIX. 

hardships,  denied  them  now  by  those  wanton  and  reckless  demagogues  who  con- 
stitute a  usurpatory  and  tyrannical  majority  of  the  present  Congress. 

Let  me  explain :  As  is  well  known,  whi'le  slavery  existed  in  the  South  there 
was  no  respectability  of  labor.  Every  sort  of  actual'work  with  the  hands,  whether 
upon  one's  owu  account  or  in  the  way  of  help  or  assistance  to  others,  was.  always 
looked  upon  as  menial  and  degrading.  Negroes,  as  slaves  and  as  servants,  were 
employed  everywhere,  not  only  out  of  doors,  but  also  within  doors.  Indecent, 
disgraceful,  an'd  criminal  as  it  was  in  reality,  this  universal  rule  or  custom  of 
"having  negroes  around"  was  both  fashionable  and  aristocratic.  There  were 
never  any  vacancies  or  situations  for  poor  white  people;  and  yet  the  number  of 
these,  in  the  South  generally,  was  always  much  greater  than  the  number  of  the  ne- 
groes. Just  look  at  it!  Just  think  of  itl  The  mass  of  the  white  population  of  the 
South  absolutely  debarred  from  the  pecuniary  profits  and  other  advantages  of  em- 
ployment, and  forced  into  the  distant  purlieus  of  poverty  and  ignorance  I  The  base- 
Dorn  and  incapable  blacks,  by  the  force  of  a  vulgar  public  opinion,  placed  above  the 
meritorious  whites !  Yet  it  was  not  at  all  because  of  any  inherent  power  or  good 
quality  in  the  negroes  that  the  poor  whites  were  thus  crowded  away  from  the 
many  desirable  employments  and  places  to  which  they  alone  should  have  been 
heartily  welcomed.  The  fault  of  the  thing,  up  to  the  close  of  the  war,  is  traceable 
directly  to  the  slaveholders  themselves,  who.  in  the  short-sighted  and  vicious  pol- 
icy which  they  pursued,  made  every  other  interest  in  the  country,  both  great  and 
small,  subordinate  and  subservient  to  the  negroes  and  negro  slavery.  !-ince  the 
war,  the  blame,  in  a  grossly  aggravated  and  unexpected  form,  rest's  exclusively 
with  the  Radical  party.  The  slaveholders  are  now  beginning  to  see  and  lament 
the  folly  and  blindness  and  bigotry  of  their  unseemly  devotion  to  the  worthless 
negroes.  For  the  sake  of  the  country,  let  us_  sincerely  hope  and  pray  that  the  Kndicals 
may  soon  give  evidence  of  similar  perception,  and  aNo  of  true  sorrow  for  their  very 
numerous,  very  black,  and  very  grievous  political  sins.  Never  did  Brahmins,  Ma- 
hommedans,  or  Christians,  sacrifice  their  country,  their  property,  their  friends,  their 
family,  or  themselves,  with  more  fidelity  to  their  God,  than  the  slaveholders  here 
have  sacrificed  everything  which  they  held  dear  on  earth,  in  order  to  preserve  alive 
and  unscathed  the  negro,  —  the  very  blackest  and  basest  wretch  that  ever  lived. 
Was  such  black  and  abominable  idol  ever  so  besottedly  worshipped  before  ?  Them- 
selves, their  sons,  their  nearand  distant  relatives,  their  neighbors,  and  their  coun- 
trymen, all  of  their  own  kith  and  kin  and  color,  the  slaveholders  cheerfully  gave 
to  the  battle  and  to  death ;  but  the  negro,  the  meanest  and  most  degraded  of  man- 
kind, was  kept  alive,  and  is  still  among  us,  a  nuisance,  a  leper,  and  a  plague. 

Time  and  space  both  fail  here  of  a  suitable  opportunity  for  entering  into  all  the 
sad  and  shocking  minutiae  of  the  cruelly  unjust  proscription  of  the  .Southern  poor 
whites,  who,  by  the  common  exigencies  of  their  nature,  and  as  the  mere  ont-kirt 
tenants  of  the  rich  landed  proprietors,  were  compelled  to  seek  such  an  incidental 
and  uncertain  livelihood  as  they  could  procure  by  hunting  and  fishing,  and  by  such 
occasional  jobs,  here  and  there,  as  they  could  beg,  too  often  only  as  a  sort  of  spec- 
ial favor  from  one  or  more  of  their  wealthier  and  better-hearted  neighbors.  Kven 
a  slight  knowledge  of  the  facts,  however,  and  upon  these  facts  a  little  sagacious 
reflection  will  enable  you  to  perceive  at  once  the  numerous  opportunities,  both  for 
education  and  for  physical  comforts,  which  were,  a>  a  matter  of  course,  given  to 
the  negroes,  but  which,  at  the  same  time,  and  equally  as  a  matter  of  course,  were 
•withheld  from  the  whites.  For  nearly  two  hundred  and  fifty  years,  the  negroes 
here,  as  waiters  in  hotels,  and  in  the  families  of  the  most  learned  and  refined,  as 
barbers  and  as  body-servants  to  professional  men,  pleasure-seekers  and  others, 
have  had  the  constant  benefit  of  hearing  the  intelligent  conversation  of  their  mas- 
ters and  mistresses,  and  also  of  listening  to  the  interesting  and  instructive  stories 
of  well-informed  visitors  and  cosmopolitan  strangers.  Retained  in  great  numbers 
in  the  cities  and  towns  (just  where  not  one  of  them  ought  ever  to  have  been,  and 
just  where  not  one  of  them  ought  ever  to  be\  they  always  had  free  and  undisputed 
admission  to  the  public  meetings  in  the  court-houses  and  in  the  town  halls,  and 
also  to  the  religious  meetings  held  in  the  churches  and  elsewhere.  As  a  cla-s,  they 
alone,  of  all  the  poor  people  in  the  South,  had  access,  at  all  times,  in  the  families 
of  the  rich  and  refined,  to  books,  magazines,  and  newspapers.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  poor  whites,  treated  as  outcasts,  merely  because  they  did  not  own  slaves,  en- 
joyed none  of  the  opportunities  which  were  thus  so  easily  within  the  reach  of  the 
negroes,  whether  for  the  enlargement  and  cultivation  of  the  mind,  or  for  the 
health  and  comfort  of  the  body;  and,  what  is  worse,  —  ay,  what,  indeed,  is  very 
much  worse,  —  the  condition  of  things  in  this  respect  is  still  unchanged.  Hordes 
of  hungry,  shiftless,  and  worthless  blacks,  who,  relying,  as  of  old,  on  their  impor- 
tunate and  resistless  art  of  begging,  to  supply  themselves,  among  other  tilings, 
with  all  the  threadbare  and  bad-fitting  garments  of  their  white  superiors. nre 
everywhere  offering  their  services  for  the  merest  nominal  wages ;  and  the  old  mas- 


terposed  between  the  two  great  white  elements  in  the  South,  where,  like  a  slug- 
gish, yet  meandering  woodworm,  he  is  all  the  while  gnawing  deeper  and  deeper 
into  the  vitals  of  first  one  side  and  then  the  other.  Of  the  two  classes  of  whites 


APPENDIX.  241 

ters  and  employers,  accustomed  only  to  such  wretched  and  barbarous  assistance 
as  can  be  got  from  negro  slaves  and  negro  servants,  are  yet  under  the  spell  of 
sable  witch  and  sable  wizard,  and,  with  rare  exceptions,  have  as  yet  learned  lit- 
tle or  nothing  of  either  the  advantage  or  the  duty,  the  decency  or  the  respectabil- 
ity, of  employing  and  having  about  them  none  but  white  persons.  In  this  way  the 
negro,  a  pesterer  of  detestable  character  and  color,  continues  to  be  banefully  in- 

e a  slug- 
d deeper 
f  whites 

who  are  thus  incessantly  preyed  upon  and  despoiled  by  the  blacks,  the  poorer 
whites  are  invariably  the  greater  victims  ;  for  against  these  are  arrayed  the  low 
prejudice  and  the  hostile  influences  of  not  only  all  the  negroes,  but  (shameful  and 
shocking  to  relate)  of  many  of  the  wealthier  whites  also.  This  is  what  comes  of 
that  unnatural  and  execrable  bond  of  sympathy  and  selfishness  which  has  so  long 
existed,  and  which  still  exists,  between  the  negro  owners,  or  those  who  were  but 
lately  so,  and  the  negroes  themselves  ;  and  now,  to  this  double  and  distressing  op- 
position, against  which  the  poor  whites  of  the  South  have  for  so  long  a  time  barely 
been  able  to  offer  even  a  feeble  resistance,  is  added  a  third  power,  far  more  crafty, 
and  far  more  potent  for  mischief  than  either  of  the  others.  This  third  power  — 
whether  it  seems  to  be  so  or  not,  or  whether  it  was  intended  to  be  so  or  not,  it  is 
so,  nevertheless  —  this  third  power,  in  alliance  with  the  negroes  and  the  ex-slave- 
holders, to  utterly  crush  out  and  ruin  forever  the  poor  whites  of  the  South,  is  the 
whole  Radical  party,  but  more  especially  that  very  unscrupulous  and  desperate 
embodiment  of  it  now  justly  described  and  detested  as  the  rump  Congress.  Un- 
der the  wrongfully  discriminating,  negro-favoring  enactments  of  this  unconstitu- 
tional and  unprincipled  Congress,  not  only  are  white  emigrants  from  the  North 
and  from  Europe  now  coming  hither  in  less  numbers  than  they  came  under  the  old 
condition  of  things,  but  many  of  the  whites  who  are  already  here  are  every  day  be- 
coming more  andmore  anxious  to  abandon  their  homes  and  emigrate  to  distant 
and  foreign  lands,  rather  than  remain  the  victims  of  that  terrible  thraldom  of 
negro  supremacy,  which  a  most  mean  and  malignant  assemblage  of  heartless  Rad- 
icals are  now  fastening  upon  them. 
Almost  every  day,  for  several  months  past,  —  ever  since  I  last  returned  to  the 


State,  —  have  I  seen  whole  families,  and  sometimes  two  or  three  together,  leaving 
North  Carolina,  some  going  in  the  direction  of  Illinois,  some  travelling  toward 
Indiana,  and  others,  of  the  more  able  and  venturesome  sort,  bound  for  Brazil  and 


,  ,  , 

elsewhere,  far  beyond  the  utmost  limits  of  their  own  native  soil.  While  thus, 
under  the  oppressive  and  tyrannical  operations  of  Radical  military  despotisms,  our 
own  native  white  people  are  robbed  of  their  natural  freedom,  and  forced  to  flee  to 
foreign  lands,  European  emigrants  and  emigrants  from  the  North  are  restrained 
almost  entirely  from  coming  to  the  South  I  And  thus  swiftly  and  infamously  are 
the  narrow-minded  and  revengeful  Radicals  converting  all  the  States  of  the  South 
into  one  vast  Hayti,  or  Jamaica,  or  Mexico,  —  driving  from  the  country  the  white 
people,  who  are,  whether  here  or  elsewhere,  the  only  worthy  and  saving  elements 
of  population,  and  surrendering  it  completely  to  the  pollution,  devastation,  and 
ruin  of  stupid  and  beast-like  hordes  of  black  barbarians. 

Of  the  extreme  poverty  and  distress  of  many  of  the  poor  whites  who  are  now 
emigrating  from  the  State,  and  of  a  still  larger  number  who,  rather  than  submit 
to  the  further  clnnger  and  disgrace  of  Radical-negro  and  negro-Radical  domination, 
are  anxious  to  leave,  but  are  destitute  even  of  the  scanty  means  necessary  to  take 
them  away,  I  have  scarcely  the  heart  to  speak.  To  enter  adequately  into  details 
or  particulars  upon  this  subject  in  a  mere  newspaper  article,  is  quite  out  of  the 
question,  and  so  I  will  only  remark  here,  in  a  general  way,  but  with  all  the  emphasis 
of  earnestness  and  truth,  that  I  do  not  believe  any  people  in  any  part  of  America 
were  ever  subjected  to  such  unjust  and  oppressive  straits,  such  miserable  and 
wretched  shifts,  as  the  poorer  classes  of  the  white  people  of  North  Carolina,  and  of 
the  South  generally,  are  now  having  to  struggle  against  ;  and  all  this  mainly  in  con- 
sequence of  the  blundering  and  unconstitutional  enactments,  the  unstatesmanlike 
and  infamous  legislation  of  that  oligarchy  of  sectional  demagogues  known  as  the 
rump  Congress. 

Within  the  last  few  weeks  especially,  many  white  families  have  I  seen  leaving 
the  State,  all  on  foot,  and  barefooted  at  that,  apparently  possessed  of  no  clothing, 
except  the  two  or  three  soiled  and  tattered  garments  which  they  were  wearing  at 
the  time,  and  carrying  in  a  small  bundle  on  their  backs  every  article  of  property, 
of  whatever  nature  or  kind,  of  which  they  could  claim  the  ownership.  One  fam- 
ily of  eight  persons,  whom  I  met  on  the  road,  particularly  attracted  my  attention; 
and  my  heart,  from  an  involuntary  feeling  of  commiseration,  almost  bled  when 
I  became  a  witness  of  their  dire  destitution  and  wretchedness.  This  family  was 
composed  of  the  father,  mother,  grandmother,  and  five  children,  the  eldest"  child 

21 


242  APPENDIX. 

being  not  more  than  twelve  years  of  age.  Except  the  youngest  child,  which  was 
in  its  mother's  arms,  all  were  travelling  on  foot,  and  all  were  barefooted,  with  the 
single  exception  of  the  father,  who  had  on  very  old  and  rudely  patched  brogans. 
A  single  outer  dress,  of  the  commonest  and  cheapest  stuff',  and  that  much  worn, 
and  by  no  means  clean,  with  a  dingy-looking  sun-bonnet,  appeared  to  be  the  only 
article  of  clothing  of  which  any  one  of  the  females  was  possessed.  The  head  of 
the  family  had  no  coat;  and  as  for  the  boys,  uncombed,  ragged,  and  ignorant,  they 
had,  indeed,  in  a  truly  serious  and  melancholy  sense,  almost  literally  "  nothing  to 
wear."  Coarse  straw  hats,  common  shirts,  and  very  common  pantaloons,  all 
badly  worn,  were  the  only  things  they  had  as  shields  from  the  weather;  and  the*e 
shabby  vestments  seemed  to  constitute  the  sum  total  of  their  personal  effects.  In 
a  email  cotton-cloth  wallet,  which  was  swung  across  the  shoulders  of  the  father, 
and  which  he  evidently  carried  without  its  causing  him  any  particular  burden  or 
inconvenience,  were  deposited  the  only  movables,  the  only  goods  mid  chattels, 
the  only  household  gods  of  this  poor,  this  uneducated,  this  politically  oppressed 
and  unfortunate  family.  Nor  is  this  an  exaggerated  picture.  Were  it  but  a  soli- 
tary  case,  or  but  one  of  few,  the  condition  of  things  would  not  be  so  bad  ;  but, 
sud  to  reflect,  it  is  only  one  of  many,  and  the  number  is  increasing.  Wliether 
fleeing  from  oppression  (this  time  not  so  much  the  oppression  by  ex-slaveholders, 
as  the  oppression  by  Radicals  and  negroes),  or  whether  remaining  at  home  under 
the  galling  yoke  of  tyranny,  the  whole  South  is  now  full  of  just  such  victims  as 
the  family  just  mentioned.  And  these  victims,  for  the  most  part,  as  poor  as  poor 
can  be,  and  as  ignorant  and  miserable  as  possible,  are  principally  ot  the  former 
class  of  poor  whites,  for  the  utter  crushing  out  and  destruction  or  whom  there  is 
now  in  force  a  most  foul  and  formidable  triple  alliance  of  Radicals,  ex-slave- 
holders,  and  negroes;  but,  as  already  intimated,  the  least  harm  that  is  felt  from 
this  alliance  cornea  from  the  ex-slaveholders,  who,  for  the  first  time  in  their  lives, 
are  only  now  beginning  to  accept  in  practice  the  correctness  of  their  ancient  and 
all-the-while  preaching,  that  white  people  are  better  than  negroes.  In  behnlf  of 
these  long  and  sorely  oppressed  poor  whites,  and  for  the  means  not  merely  to 
enable  them  to  withstand,  but  eventually  to  overcome,  the  threefold  and  iniquitous 
opposition  thus  arrayed  against  them,  I,  here  and  now,  with  all  due  deference  and 
respect,  appeal  to  God  and  to  the  good  people  of  the  North. 

Scarcely  anywhere  can  one  travel  in  the  South,  at  the  present  time,  without 
meeting,  on  every  hand,  especially  among  the  poor  whites,  — and  there  are  few 
now  who  are  not  poor,  —  numerous  cases  of  actual  want,  sickness,  suffering,  and 
despair;  and  were  it  not  that  I  fear  to  tax  too  severely  your  patience,  I  should 
feel  it  niy  duty  to  give  a  somewhat  full  and  minute  account  of  several  of  them. 
As  it  is,  however,  1  will  only  advert  to  two  or  three  cases  in  addition  to  the  one 
already  mentioned.  In  Marion,  the  county  seat  of  McDowell  county,  in  this  .State, 
adjoining  the  county  in  which  I  am  now  writing,  and  where  I  now  reside.it  was 
ascertained  a  short  while  since  that  unless  the  pressing  necessities  of  a  large 
number  of  the  poor  white  people  could  soon  be  relieved,  there  was  great  danger 
that  many  of  them,  during  the  ensuing  winter,  would  sutler  intensely,  if  not  die 
outright,  of  cold  and  hunger.  In  their  behalf,  an  appeal  was  made  to  a  few 
wealthy  gentlemen  of  Baltimore,  who  nobly  responded  in  the  form  of  a  liberal 
contribution  of  money.  There  were  and  are  in  that  county,  as,  indeed,  in  every 
other  county,  district,  and  parish  throughout  the  South,  a  great  many  poor  widows 
and  orphans,  whose  husbands  and  fathers  were  conscripted  and  killed  during  the 
late  war,  and  who  now,  without  lands,  without  houses,  —  except  here  and  there  a 
dilapidated  log-cabin,  —  and  without  employment,  are  in  a  manner  naked,  re- 
eourceless,  and  starved.  In  view  of  the  wretchedly  ill-clad  condition  of  these 
poor  widows  and  orphans,  it  was  thought  best  to  spend  the  money,  which,  as 
already  explained,  had  been  generously  contributed  in  Baltimore,  for  cotton 
thread,  such  as  is  used  for  the  weaving  of  plain  cloth,  and  to  distribute  a  bunch  of 
that,  so  far  as  it  would  go,  to  each  fatherless  family.  Mr.  Alfred  Krwin,  a  kind- 
hearted  and  very  estimable  citizen  of  that  county,  a  lawyer  by  profession,  was  ap- 
pointed to  make  the  distribution.  As  soon  as  it  became  known  that  Mr.  Krwin 
had  received  this  thread,  to  be  given  awav  at  his  discretion  to  the  persons  indi- 
cated, his  office  was  literally  besieged,  until  very  soon  there  was  not  a  single  bunch 
left,  and  then  it  was  truly  touching  to  witness  the  profound  disappointment  and 
grief,  amounting  almost  to  despair,  of  the  numerous  careworn  and  indigent 
mothers  who  were  still  unprovided  for,  some  of  whom  had  come  twelve  or  fifteen 
miles  over  the  rough  mountain  roads,  on  foot,  barefooted,  and  with  scarcely 
clothes  enough  upon  themselves  to  cover,  in  the  usual  way,  their  own  persons. 
The  sight,  I  say.tne  sight  of  these  very  poor  widowed  mothers  having  to  return 
home  empty-handed,  but  heavy-hearted,  as  I  myself  saw  many  of  them  returning, 
to  rickety,  cold,  comfortless  log  cabins,  in  a  manner  destitute  not  only  of  furni- 
ture and  bedding,  but  also  of  almost  every  other  thing,  except  a  troop  of  half* 


APPENDIX.  243 

starved,  half-clad,  and  helpless  children,  was,  Indeed,  a  spectacle  too  sorrowful  to 
behold  with  anv  ordinary  emotion. 

During  the  earl}  part  of  last  month  I  was  in  Columbia,  South  Carolina.  There 
also  did  I  see  agaih,  as  I  had  frequently  seen  before,  how  poor  white  persons  are 
treated  as  the  inferiors  of  negroes,  and  how  to  the  latter  are  given  places  of  in-door 
ease  and  profit,  which  should  in  all  cases,  without  exception,  be  given  only  to  tho 
former.  At  different  times,  while  walking  about  the  city  (or  rather  the  ruins  of  a 
city,  for,  as  is  well  known,  it  was  almost  entirely  destroyed  by  fire  during  the 
brief  occupation  of  Sherman's  army,  —  a  piece  of  warfare  about  as  brave  and 
defensible  as  that  of  Semmes,  who  burned  unarmed  merchant  ships  at  sea),  — 
several  white  women  and  girls,  who  were  so  emaciated  by  a  long  and  distressful 
period  of  hunger,  little  short  of  actual  starvation,  that  some  of  them  were  re- 
duced to  mere  skin  and  bone,  met  me  in  the  street,  and,  with  tears  and  laments, 
besought  me  for  a  little  money  to  buy  bread  I  Of  one  of  them,  who  was  evidently 
but  an  indifferent  shadow  of  her  former  self,  I  asked  a  few  questions.  She  was 
but  fifteen  years  of  age.  Her  father  was  forced  into  the  war,  and  was  killed.  The 
house  in  which  she  and  her  mother  lived,  and  everything  in  it,  was  burned  to 
ashes  during  the  great  conflagration.  Almost  immediately  afterward  her  mother, 
yielding  to  excess  of  grief  and  despondency,  became  very  sick,  and  soon  died  in  a 
paroxysm  of  despair  and  delirium;  and  she,  the  daughter,  an  only  child,  was  left 
In  the  world  without  means,  without  friends,  and  without  employment.  My  heart 
sickened  under  the  plaintiveness,  the  childlike  simplicity,  and  the  obvious  truth- 
fulness of  her  statement;  and,  regretting  that  I  had  not  the  ability  to  place  in  her 
attenuated  and  leather-like  hands  dollars  instead  of  dimes,  I  returned  to  the 
Mckerson  House,  where  I  had  stopped,  and  there  I  looked  hither  and  thither 
through  hall,  parlor,  dining-room,  side  apartments,  ami  elsewhere,  to  see  whether 
it  was  possible  for  me  to  obtain  a  glimpse  of  even  one  white  servant,  old  or  young, 
male  or  female;  but  I  looked  in  vain.  Again  I  passed  into  the  street,  and  from 
one  street  into  another,  examining  and  ascertaining,  as  far  I  could  perceive, 
whether  white  servants  were  employed  in  or  about  any  of  the  private  houses ;  but, 
alas  I  not  one  could  be  seen.  Yet,  on  the  right  hand  and  on  the  left,  as  stumbling- 
blocks  in  front,  and  as  drones  and  sluggards  behind,  I  saw  multitudes  of  sleek, 
stupid,  foul-smelling,  filthy,  greasy,  and  grinning  negroes,  who,  as  the  curse-inflict- 
ing pets,  alike  of  infatuated  and  folly-governed  ex-slaveholders  and  Radicals, 
were  lazily  occupying  places  which  would  have  been  infinitely  better  occupied  by 
whites,  and  which,  by  the  great  laws  that  indicate  the  common  justice  and  decency 
of  things,  should  have  been  occupied  by  whites  alone. 

As  is  well  known  to  many  intelligent  and  worthy  persons  all  over  the  country, 
this  is  not  the  first  time  that  I  have  made  an  appeal  for  justice  for  the  poor  and 
oppressed  whites  of  the  South.  Ten  years  ago,  I  made  a  similar  appeal  in  my 
anti-slavery  and  anti-negro  book,  entitled  "  The  Impending  Crisis  of  the  South." 
Four  months  ago  I  reiterated  that  appeal  in  my  anti-negro  and  anti-slavery  book, 
entitled  "  Nojoque."  And  yet  there  are  certain  scribblers  and  babblers  of  non- 
sense,—  mere  penny-a-liners,  who  criticise  books  without  reading  them,  —  who 
feign  obliviousness  of  these  facts,  and  who  affect  to  find  disagreements  and  antag- 
onisms between  the  two  publications  here  named.  I  complain  of  this  charge 
simply  and  solely  because  it  is  not  true.  In  such  perfect  accord,  upon  all  points, 
are  "  The  Impending  Crisis  of  the  South"  and  "  Xojoque,"  that,  but  for  the  dif- 
ference in  time  of  writing  and  printing,  the  two  books  might  have  been  fitly  bound 
together,  in  which  case  the  contents  of  both  would  have  lormed  but  a  single  work, 
—  two  volumes  in  one,  — the  whole,  as  a  whole,  and  in  all  its  parts,  constituting  a 
carefully  constructed  engine  of  literary  warfare  against  negroes  and  negro  slavery. 
The  prominent  and  important  fact  that  "  The  Impending  Crisis  of  the  fcouth  "  was 
written  in  the  interest  of  the  white  people  of  the  Southern  States,  and  was  an 
appeal  to  the  whites  alone,  and  not  an  appeal  to  the  negroes,  to  the  extent  of  any 
page,  paragraph,  sentence,  line,  or  word,  was  distinctly  admitted,  and  elaborately 
dwelt  upon  and  denounced  by  many  of  the  pro-slavery  politicians  who,  though  in 
the  wrong,  were  noted  for  their  sagacity  and  eloquence  immediately  before  the 
war;  such  politicians,  for  instance,  as  Pryor  of  Virginia,  Hindman  of  Arkansas, 
and  Clark  of  Missouri.  The  fact  was  also  freely  admitted,  and  repeatedly  in- 
veighed against  with  great  severity  by  such  negro-loving  abolitionists  (but  other- 
wise able  and  excellent  men)  as  George  B.  Cheever,  Willuim  Goodell,  and  Wen- 
dell Phillips.  Some  years  ago  it  was  the  boast  of  certain  distinguished  and  patri- 
otic Republicans,  —  Republicans  who  have  since,  Lucifer-like,  fallen  from  the 
white  heights  of  Republicanism  into  the  black  depths  of  Radicalism, — tha_t  no 
honest-minded  man  could  calmly  and  attentively  peruse  my  "  Impending  Crisis  of 
the  South  "  without  learning  to  abhor  slavery.  Were  it  not  that  these  same  men, 
having  ceased  to  be  Republicans,  have  taken  upon  themselves  the  despicable 
character  of  Radicals,  they,  even,  they  themselves,  would  readily  perceive  and 


244  APPENDIX. 

acknowledge  that  every  sane  person  who  familiarizes  himself  with  the  contents 
of  "  Nojoque  "  must,  by  the  irresistible  force  of  the  facts  and  logical  inferences 
therein  recorded,  learn  to  love  white  people  us  so  infinitely  the  superiors  of  negroes 
as  to  burn  with  a  deep  and  unquenchable  desire  to  save  the  former  from  any  and 
all  manner  of  contamination  by  the  latter;  and,  therefore,  to  demand,  with  un- 
abating  energy  and  firmness,  as  affecting  the  two  races,  an  absolute,  total,  and 
eternal  separation.  • 

Because  of  its  gross  excesses,  its  shortcomings,  and  its  corruptions,  the  first 
and  most  important  tiling  necessary  to  be  done,  iu  order  to  remedy  existing  evils, 
is  to  utterly  break  down  and  destroy  the  whole  Radical  party,  —  a  party  which,  in  its 
monstrous  affiliation  with  negroes,  is  bringing  utter  abjectness  and  ruin  upon  at 
least  ten  States  of  the  Union,  and  disgracing  and  crippling  all  the  others.  Here, 
in  the  .Southern  States,  the  Radical  influence,  which  is  just  as  black  and  bad  as  it 
can  be,  coupled,  not  in  name,  but  in  reality,  with  the  old  slaveholdiug  influence, 
keeps  the  negro  unnaturally  and  dissentiously  interlarded  between  the  two  great 
while  elements  of  the  South,  thus  preventing  here,  among  the  eight  millions  of 
people  who  alone  are  good  for  anything,  that  unity  of  sentiment  and  purpose,  and 
that  harmony  of  plan  and  action,  without  which  it  is  impossible  tor  us  ever  to 
attain  anything  like  permanent  peace,  prosperity,  or  greatness.  Indeed,  under 
the  actual  military  despotisms  wnich  an  unrepublican  and  malignant  Radical 
Congress  have  foisted  upon  us,  and  under  the  atrocious  Radical  threats  of  un- 
limited confiscation  and  perpetual  disfranchisement,  leading  us  to  fear  that  a  still 
more  oppressive  and  galling  yoke  is  heid  in  reserve  for  us,  there  is  already  an 
almost  total  suspension  of  all  public  and  private  works;  men  have  no  heart  to  do 
anything,  their  nopes  and  their  energies  hare  been  crushed;  their  dwellings, 
their  out-houses,  and  their  fences  arc,  in  most  cases,  in  a  state  ot  dilapidation: 
their  institutions  of  learning,  their  churches,  and  their  public  buildings  of  all 
kinds  —  such  as  were  not  actually  burned  to  ashes  during  the  war,  having  been 
greatly  misused  and  abused  —  are  going  to  decay;  and  in  many  places,  where  at 
least  ordinary  instructors  and  schools  are  still  to  be  found,  the  children,  if  not  of 
necessity  required  to  remain  at  home  and  work,  are  too  frequently  so  destitute 
of  clothing  that  their  parents  are  ashamed  to  let  them  go  peyond  the  narrow 
limits  of  their  own  mournfully  foreboding  and  gloomy  observation.  Many  of  the 
public  roads  and  bridges,  and  not  a  few  of  the  fords  and  ferry-boats,  have  been  so 
long  out  of  repair  that  they  have  become  absolutely  dangerous ;  and,  unless,  iu  the 
good  Providence  of  God,  the  desolating  and  destructive  rule  of  Radicalism  can 
soon  be  checked  and  averted,  those  who  travel  here  extensively,  whether  by 
Bteam-power  or  by  horse-power,  will  do  so  at  the  Imminent  peril  of  their  lives. 

Especially  among  the  negroes  here  crime  and  lawlessness  of  every  sort  are  now 
far  more  rife  than  ever  before ;  while,  in  many  cases,  under  the  vicious  protection 
afforded  them  by  the  Radical  negro  bureau,  before  whose  Dogberry  agents  the 
presence  and  the  testimony  of  as  good  white  men  as  ever  lived  are  but  too  often 
treated  with  contempt,  they  (the  delinquent  negroes)  are  never  punished  at  all ; 
or,  if  punished,  punished  only  in  the  mildest  possible  manner.  I  have  known  in- 
Ktances  where  white  men,  coming  to  a  knowledge  of  crimes  committed  by  negroes, 
—  those  very  whites  themselves  being  the  victims,  —  would  endure  the  wrong,  and 
pass  the  whole  matter  by  in  silence,  and  without  action,  rather  than  subject  them- 
selves to  the  insult,  expense,  and  loss  of  time  which  they  well  knew  they  would 
be  but  too  likely  to  incur  by  making  complaint,  whether  at  the  negro  bureau,  or 
at  anyone  of  those  other  bureaus  of  military  despotism,  which  have  been  so  unne- 
cessarily and  so  wickedly  inflicted  upon  us  by  the  Radical  Congress.  Everywhere 
throughout  the  South,  the  increasing  demoralization  of  the  negroes  is  now, 
indeed,  sadly  seen  and  sadly  felt.  Nor  would  it  be  an  easy  matter  to  make  up  a 
full  and  complete  indictment  against  them  of  all  their'high  crimes  and  misde- 
meanors. In  every  district  or  community  of  a  considerable  size,  on  the  right  hand 
and  on  the  left,  they  are  almost  constantly  committing  brutal  murder  and  high- 
way robbery ;  breaking  into  dwellings  and  warehouses ;  depredating  on  orchards, 
fields  of  grain,  and  granaries;  appropriating  to  their  own  use  other  people's  cattle, 
pigs,  and  poultry;  stealing  everything  that  they  can  lay  their  hands  upon;  outrag- 
ing pure  and  innocent  white  girls;  and  not  unfrequently,  in  a  spirit  of  the  most 
savage  wantonness  and  revenge,  setting  on  fire  and  utterly  destroying  the  houses 
and  other  property  of  their  white  neighbors.  Terrorism  reigns  supreme  among 
the  white  females  of  every  family,  and  sleep  is  banished. 

Xot  far  from  here,  I  was,  a  few  weeks  ago,  in  a  small  town,  where  there  were 
just  eight  stores,  every  one  of  which  had,  at  different  times,  been  broken  into  and 
robbed.  Either  at  the  actual  time  respectively  of  each  robbery,  or  afterward,  it 
was  fully  ascertained  and  proven,  that  six  of  these  stores  had  been  forcibly  and 
feloniously  entered  by  negroes,  and  the  other  two  by  persons  unknown.  All  of 
them  bad  been,  entered  since  the  establishment  of  the  Radical  negro  bureau. 


APPENDIX.  245 

Prior  to  that  time,  no  store  in  that  town  had  ever  "been  entered  by  burglars. 
These  facts,  well  considered,  must  lead  to  the  most  solemn  and  profound  convic- 
tion, in  the  breast  of  every  right-thinking  man,  that  the  negroes,  strongly  fortified 
in  the  morbid  and  misplaced  sympathy  of  the  Radicals,  are  feeling  themselves  at 
comparative  liberty  to  commit,  with  impunity,  every  species  of  outrage  and 
crime. 

Broken-hearted  over  the  disastrous  realities  of  the  present,  and  dimly  peering 
into  the  dark  and  uncertain  future,  all  the  white  people  here,  of  whatever  condi- 
tion in  life,  are  dejected  and  sorrowful  to  an  extent  that  I  never  before  witnessed. 
Sometimes  it  has  seemed  to  me  that  I  could  discern  something  holy,  something 
sncred,  in  the  deep  and  troubled  sadness  of  those  about  me;  as  if,  indeed,  God,  in 
his  great  mercy,  had  come  to  dwell  in  their  hearts,  and  to  protect  them  from 
further  outrage.  I  would  that  this  were  so.  Among  men  whose  hearts  are  not 
entirely  callous  to  every  consideration  of  justice  and  humanity,  there  should 
always  prevail  a  sentiment  keenly  alive  to  the  suggestion,  that  there  should  be 
both  a  measure  and  a  limitation  of  punishment.  Yet,  strange  to  say,  more 
strange  to  say  of  white  men.  and  still  more  strange  to  say  of  white  men  in  this 
nineteenth  century,  the  Radicals,  as  represented  in  the  Radical  Congress,  seem  to 
be  actuated  by  no  such  sentiment  as  this.  For  the  crimes  which  were  committed 
by  only  a  few  dozen  actual  traitors  (the  more  prominent  and  guilty  of  whom 
ought,  in  my  opinion,  to  have  been  hanged  more  than  two  years  ago),  they  are 
inflicting  all  manner  of  severe  penalties  and  punishments  on  eight  millions  of 
people  I  They  complain,  and  justly,  of  the  cruel  treatment  and  death  of  spine 
thousands  of  Union  soldiers  in  Libby  Prison,  at  Salisbury,  and  at  Andersonville; 
but,  by  laws  more  tyrannical  and  barbarous  than  were  ever  before  enacted  by  any 
civilized  legislature,  they  are  deliberately  crushing  out  the  spirit  and  the  lite  of 
millions  of  innocent  men,  women,  and  children  I  In  the  vain  effort  to  exculpate 
themselves,  they  vauntingly  proclaim  to  the  world  that  their  measures  of  military 
reconstruction  were  enacted  in  great  part,  if  not  principally,  for  the  protection 
and  for  the  benefit  of  Union  men  in  the  South.  I  tell  them  that  the  true  Union 
men  of  the  South  (the  white  Union  men,  and  except  these  there  were  none,  and 
are  none  worthy  of  the  name)  detest,  with  a  detestation  unutterable;  the  entire 
batch  of  their  disgraceful  and  ruinous  military  measures  of  reconstruction.  With 
few  exceptions,  the  white  Union  men  of  the  South  feel  that  they  have  been  most 
foully  and  shamefully  betrayed  and  dishonored ;  and  we  reject,  with  immeasurable 
scorn  and  indignation,  the  imputation  that  we  have  any  sympathies  or  purposes 
in  common  with  base-minded  and  degenerate  partisans,  w'ho,  like  the  Radicals, 
are  abandoned  to  every  high  principle  of  honor  and  right  reason.  We  were,  and 
are  still,  Republicans;  not  black  Republicans,  but  white  Republicans.  Radicals 
•we  never  were,  nor  can  we  be.  It  is,  then,  the  Republican  party,  in  the  persona 
of  factious  and  fanatical  multitudes  of  Radical  demagogues,  that  has  left  us,  and 
not  we  who  have  left  the  Republican  party.  And  I  here  tell  these  Radicals,  and  I 
tell  them  with  emphasis  and  distinctness,  not  as  a  threat,  but  as  a  warning,  that, 
in  any  future  conflict  of  arms  (which,  however,  may  God  and  good  men  avert  I)  be- 
tween the  friends  and  enemies  of  the  Constitution,  and  of  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  as  constitutionally  organized,  the  better  class  of  Union  white  men 
of  the  South  would  be  precisely  where  they  were  before,  —  they  would  be  with  the 
right,  but  not  with  the  Radicals. 

But  why  do  I  speak  of  a  warlike  contingency  of  this  sort  as  being  now  even 
•within  the  bounds  of  possibility  ?  I  will  tell  you.  That  the  whole  country,  North 
and  South,  East  and  West,  is  not  now  in  a  state  of  general  good  order,  peace  and 
prosperity,  is  alone  due  to  the  unwise  and  unjust  legislation  of  the  Radical  Con- 
gress. A  large  majority  of  that  Congress  are  now  evincing,  or  have  but  recently 
evinced,  a  disposition  to  prosecute,  even  to  still  greater  lengths,  if  possible,  their 
former  schemes  of  revenge,  despotism,  and  ruin.  As  a  mere  party  measure,  rank 
with  wantonness  and  usurpation,  they  now  threaten  to  impeach  and  remove  a 
President  who,  though  at  times  somewhat  stubborn  and  imprudent,  has  always 
been  rigidly  faithful  in  the  performance  of  his  constitutional  duties,  inflexibly 
honest,  thoroughly  patriotic,  and  eminently  solicitous  to  promote,  in  all  proper 
ways,  the  public  good.  An  intelligent  and  distinguished  merchant  of  Boston, 
with  whom,  on  a  certain  occasion,  I  dined  in  New  York,  a  few  months  ago, 
remarked  to  me,  that  in  his  opinion  the  present  or  a  future  Bancroft,  in  detailing 
to  posterity  the  true  history  of  the  administration  of  Andrew  Johnson,  would 
find  in  him  the  best  president,  Abraham  Lincoln  alone  excepted,  that  we  have 
had  in  America,  thus  far,  since  the  days  of  John  Quincy  Adams.  That  was  the 
honest  opinion  of  a  highly-educated,  high-minded,  and  most  worthy  merchant 
of  the  city  of  Boston.  Let  the  whole  crowd  of  noisy  radicals,  who,  not  unlike  a 
pack  of  poodles  snarling  and  snapping  at  the  heels  ot  an  elephant,  are  incessantly 
annoying  and  defaming  one  who  is,  in  every  good  quality,  vastly  the  superior  of 

21* 


246  APPENDIX. 

themselves,  reflect  whether  the  positive  opinion  thus  expressed  was  not  tolerably 
well  founded.  Another  gentleman  (and  this  brings  me  to  the  very  gist  of  what  { 
wish  to  say  in  reference  to  future  lighting,  and  to  beg  that  the  radicals  will  give  no 
occasion  for  it),  a  New  Yorker,  who  occupies  an  important  judicial  position,  declared 
to  me,  in  June  last,  that  in  case  of  the  attempt  of  the  Radical  Congress  to  remove 
the  President  in  any  manner,  or  for  any  cause  not  explicitly  prescribed  in  the 
Constitution,  —  mind  you,  he  did  not  even  mention  the  name  of  Andrew  Johnson, 
he  only  spoke  of  "the  President," — he,  for  one,  would  take  up  arms  to  resist 
the  usurpation,  and  he  believed  the  people  would  generally  do  the  same  thing. 
He  further  remarked  that  in  such  an  event  the  war  would  be  one  merely  for  the 
preservation  of  republican  and  democratic  institutions,  and  that  it  would  pre- 
vail only  at  the  North,  unless  the  South,  by  her  own  volition,  should  come  to 
be  a  party  to  it.  Now,  it  may  be  that  there  are  certain  men  in  the  South 
who  would  be  more  or  less  rejoiced  at  the  outbreak  of  a  war  of  that  sort,  but  if 
so,  I  most  sincerely  hope  and  trust  that  they  may  never  be  gratified ;  nor  will  they 
be,  unless  it  be  through  the  folly  and  the  crime  of  the  Kadical  party.  The  white 
Union  men  of  the  South  are  not  only  Southerners,  they  are  also  Americans,  and 
they  wish  well  to  the  whole  country ;  indeed,  so  extensive  are  their  good  will 
and  aspirations  in  this  regard,  that  they  hope  the  day  will  soon  come,  or  come 
some  time,  when  the  entire  continent  of  North  America,  from  the  Atlantic  to 
the  Pacific,  and  from  Behring's  Straits  to  the  Isthmus  of  Darien,  shall  be  found 
to  be  too  small  to  represent  in  full  on  the  maps  the  peaceful,  prosperous,  and 
progressive  superficies  and  boundaries  of  our  national  domain.  We  believe  that 
Andrew  Johnson  has  made,  and  is  still  making,  in  the  person  of  himself,  a  truly 
ableand  patriotic  President  of  these  United  States ;  and  we  believe  further,  without 
advocating  his  election  or  re-election,  that  he  would  make,  for  the  ensuing  Presi- 
dential term,  a  better  President  than  any  one  of  the  gentlemen  whose  names  the 
Radicals  have  yet  mentioned  in  connection  with  that  high  office;  and  this  simply 
because  they  have  not  mentioned  the  names  of  such  clear-sighted  and  worthy 
Republican  statesmen  as  Seward,  Adams,  Fessenden,  Sherman,  McCulloch,  Doo- 
little,  Browning,  Welles,  Raymond,  and  Randall;  nor  the  names  of  any  of  those 
tried  and  trusty  Democratic  statesmen  to  whom,  in  magnanimous  and  praise- 
worthy coalition  with  the  Republicans,  we  may  yet  have  to  look  for  the  safe  pilot- 
ing of  the  ship  of  State  over  the  many  rough  shoals  and  breakers  among  which 
the  Radicals  have  so  negligently  and  so  culpably  allowed  her  to  drift. 

We,  the  white  Union  men  of  the  South,  —  and  all  the  white  men  here,  two  or 
three  dozen  arch-traitors  exccpted,  would  soon  become  firm  and  faithful  friends 
of  the  Union,  if  they  were  only  afforded  a  just  and  reasonable  opportunity  to  be- 
come so,  — are  very  desirous  that  all  the  Southern  States  shall  at  once  be  prudently 
and  properly  rehabilitated;  we  want  them  to  resume,  without  delay,  their  right- 
ful status  in  the  nation;  we  want  them  acknowledged  and  treated,  in  all  re- 
spects, as  free  and  equal  States,  with  enlightened  and  republican  constitutions  of 
government,  similar  to  those  of  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Ohio;  we  want 
them  to  retain,  in  the  amplest  possible  sense,  both  the  semblance  and  the  reality 
of  white  States,  and  so  avoid  the  utter  disgrace  and  worthlexsness  of  becoming 
black  States;  and  we  insist  upon  it,  that  the  infamous  dogmas  and  teachings  of 
the  Radicals,  who  are  so  pertinaciously  striving  to  reduce  the  white  races  of  our 
country  to  the  low  level  of  negrohood,  ought  to  be  everywhere  refused  and  rejected 
•with  the  utmost  disdain.  We  insist  upon  it,  that  the  abolition  of  slavery  among 
us  ought  to  leave  the  negro  occupying  in  the  South  precisely  the  same  status  that 
the  abolition  of  slavery  among  you  left  him  occupying  in  the  North.  We  insist 
upon  it,  that,  because  of  his  natural  inferiority,  his  despicable  characteristics,  his 
gross  stupidity,  and  his  brutishness,  he  ought  not  to  be  allowed  either  to  vote  or 
to  hold  office,  nor  to  fill  or  perform  any  other  high  function  which  appertains,  and, 
of  right,  should  always  appertain  exclusively,  to  the  worthy  and  well-qualified 
white  citizens  of  our  country.  [Speaking  here  only  for  myself,  as  an  individual,  I 
may  say,  with  absolute  sincerity  and  truth,  that  however  much  others  may  itch  for 
office,  t'liere  is  no  position  of  honor,  trust,  or  profit,  within  the  gift  of  any  number 
of  the  American  people,  or  any  number  of  any  other  people,  that  I  would  accept, 
unless  it  came  to  me  through  white  votes  alone.  And  while  this  is  strictly  true,  It 
is  very  certain,  also,  that,  however  unregenerate  I  may  be  in  other  respects,  —  and 
it  would  seem  that,  according  to  the  opinion  of  some,  I  am  a  rather  sinful  sort  of 
man, — yet  I  feel  happy  in  the  perfect  assurance  that  I  shall  never  go  down  to  the 
grave  nor  elsewhere,  with  the  black  crime  resting  upon  my  soul  of  having,  in  any 
contingency,  or  under  any  possible  or  conceivable  circumstances,  ever  voted  for  a 
negro.]  We  insist  upon  it  that  the  enfranchisement  of  the  negroes,  and  the  dis- 
franchisement  of  the  whites,  whereby  the  supremacy  of  the  negroes  has  already 
been  established,  or  is  about  to  be  established  in  almost  every  Southern  State,  is  a 
consummate  outrage,  an  unmitigated  despotism,  au  unparalleled  infamy,  and  an 


APPENDIX.  247 

atrocious  crime.  We  insist  upon  it  that  our  Federal  government  and  our  State 
governments  are,  as  they  ought  to  be,  republican  in  form,  and  that  the  military 
authorities  ought,  at  all  times,  except  only  in  eases  of  actual  war,  in  the  future  as 
in  the  past,  to  be  held  subordinate  to  the  civil  authorities.  We  further  insist  upon 
it,  that  the  whole  drift  of  radical  legislation,  for  the  last  eighteen  months  and  more, 
lias  been,  and  still  is,  unstatesmanlike,  unrepublican,  vindictive,  and  despotic, — 
perilous  to  all  the  principles  of  enlightened  self-government,  and  alarmingly  de- 
grading and  inimical  to  the  white  civilization  and  progress  of  the  entire  New 
World: 

It  is  absurd  and  useless  for  the  Radicals,  while  tacitly  admitting  the  black  and 
baneful  excesses  of  their  legislation,  to  tell  us,  in  the  pitiful  attempt  to  excuse 
their  own  gross  ignorance  and  folly,  that  the  numerical  preponderance  of  the 
whites  in  the  South  will  save  them  from  the  corrupting  and  demoralizing  influ- 
ences of  the  negroes.  As  well  might  they  tell  us  that  a  pound,  or  a  less  quantity, 
of  strychnine  would  do  no  harm  in  a  barrel  of  flour;  that  an  ounce  of  arsenic  would 
accomplish  no  mischief  in  a  peck  of  meal ;  that  a  phial  of  prussic  acid  could  effect 
no  injury  in  a  pitcher  of  water;  or  that  one  idiot,  feverish  and  frantic  with  conta- 
gion, might  not  communicate  the  effluvium  of  fatal  infection  to  a  score  or  more  of 
sane  men.  We  insist  upon  it  that  it  is  pre-eminently  our  duty  to  be  just  and  kind 
to  our  own  race,  and  that  the  poor  and  distressed  of  the  white  race  are  those  who, 
here,  there,  and  everywhere,  have  the  highest  claims  upon  us,  whether  for  ser- 
vice, for  food,  for  clothing,  for  education,  or  for  whatever  other  thing;  and  also, 
that  if,  in  being  but  just  to  our  own  race,  the  negroes  or  others  are  the  sufferers, 
that,  under  the  inscrutable  purposes  of  Providence,  is  simply  their  misfortune,  and 
should  always  be  so  considered.  Further,  and  finally,  we  insist  upon  it,  that  the 
good  results  which  the  loyal  and  intelligent  masses  of  the  country  had  a  right  to 
expect  would  soon  follow  the  abolition  of  slavery  and  the  suppression  of  the  re- 
bellion, shall  neither  be  defeated  nor  indefinitely  delayed ;  and  we  protest  that  the 
disingenuousness  and  treachery  of  the  Radicals  since  the  war,  seriously  threaten 
to  neutralize  all  the  wise  and  patriotic  labors  which  the  Republicans  so  heroically 
and  so  gloriously  performed  both  before  and  during  the  war.  We  ask  for  the 
immediate  repeal  of  all  military  laws  which  are  antagonistic  to  the  spirit  and  form 
of  republican  government,  and,  especially,  for  the  speedy  repeal  of  all  such  politi- 
cal and  mercenary  monstrosities  as  the  negro  bureau  bill.  We  also  ask  that  the 
expenses  of  the  army  and  navy  may  be  reduced  at  least  one-half,  and  that  the 
burdens  of  taxation,  which  now  weigh  so  heavily  upon  white  people,  may  at  once 
be  lightened. 

With  an  eye  and  a  purpose  to  these  ends,  we  ask  that  every  Radical  Senator  and 
Representative  in  Congress,  and  every  other  Radical  officer  in  the  land,  whether 
national,  State,  county,  or  municipal,  who  is,  or  has  been,  an  aider  and  abettor  of 
that  usurpatory  and  tyrannical  oligarchy,  euphemized  as  the  American  Congress, 
shall,  one  and  all,  at  the  very  next  elections  in  which  their  names  may  be  brought 
before  the  people,  be  wholly  and  summarily  withdrawn  from  official  life,  and  that 
new  and  better  men  —  men  possessed  of  good  common-sense — men  controlled 
by  sentiments  of  justice  for  white  people,  no  less  than  by  sentiments  of  justice  for 
black  people  —  men  sufficiently  free  from  sectional  bias  —  men  of  enlarged  and 
statesmanlike  views  —  shall  be  ejected  in  their  stead.  Let  this  be  done,  and  all 
will  be  well.  Let  it  be  made  manifest,  and  let  it  be  proclaimed  abroad,  throughout 
the  entire  length  and  breadth  of  the  land,  that  what  the  short-sighted  and  fanati- 
cal Radicals  are  aiming  at  as  a  mere  possible  good  to  four  millions  of  blacks,  is 
a  positive  disservice  and  evil  to  eight  millions  of  whites.  We  want,  and  we  will 
have,  no  re-estoblishment  of  slavery.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  there  are  not  to-day,  in 
the  whole  State  of  North  Carolina,  two  hundred  men,  of  good  standing  or  influ- 
ence, who  would,  if  they  could,  have  slavery  re-established.  Indeed,  I  doubt 
•whether  there  are  five  thousand  white  men,  in  all  the  South,  who  would  now,  or 
at  any  future  time,  be  so  unwise,  so  rash,  and  so  reckless,  as  to  undo  the  acts  of 
emancipation,  even  if  they  had  the  power.  The  only  persons  here  who,  in  any 
considerable  number,  would  be  willing  to  incur  the  odium  and  the  infamy  of  voting 
for  a  return  to  the  system  of  slavery,  are  negroes  themselves,  whose  instincts  tell 
them,  that  if  really  put  upon  their  own  resources  in  communities  of  white  men, 
and  in  no  manner  propped  up  or  sustained  at  the  expense  and  degradation  of  a 
greater  or  less  number  of  whites,  whether  by  servitude,  under  an  oligarchy  of 
slaveholders,  on  the  one  hand,  or  by  negro  bureaus,  under  an  oligarch  v  of  Radicals, 
on  the  other,  they  will  gradually  fall  behind  in  the  career  of  life,  fail  to  multiply 
the  inferior  race'to  which  they  belong,  die  out,  and  become  fossilized.  While, 
therefore,  we  are  firm  in  the  wish  and  purpose  not  to  have  any  more  slavery  in  the 
South,  we  are  equally  firm  in  the  desire  and  determination  to  get  rid  of  the  negroes 
if  we  can,  — not  by  taking  from  them  one  drop  of  blood,  —  not  by  hurting  a  single 
fibre  of  hair  (or  wool)  upon  their  heads,  but  by  colonization,  in  or  out  of  Mexico; 


248 


APPENDIX. 


and  in  this  effort,  which  will  be  in  perfect  harmony  with  that  wisdom  and  patriot- 
ism, which,  through  the  mighty  energies  and  enterprises  of  white  men,  have 
brought  imperishable  greatness  and  glory  to  the  North,  we  most  earnestly  and 
trustingly  solicit  your  fraternal  co-operation.  And  then,  having  at  last  imitated  the 
good  example  which  you  have  held  prominently  before  us  for  more  than  half  a  cen- 
tury, but  which,  in  our  excest-ive  folly  and  stubbornness,  we  have untW  now  rejected ; 
having  filled  our  States,  as  you  have  h'lled  your  States,  with  white  people,  and  not 
with  such  intolerable  human  rubbish  as  negroes,  Indians,  and  mulattoes,  then  we 
•  mean  to  fight  you  again ;  not  with  steam-rams,  cannon,  muskets,  bayonets,  swords, 
nor  sabres;  not  with  any  of  the  sanguinary  and  sorrowfuJ  weapons  of  death, 
but  with  all  the  pleasing  and  ennobling  agencies  of  life.  Then,  for  the  first  time 
since  you  wisely  abolished  slavery  and  negroes,  and  we  foolishly  retained  them, 
will  it  be  possible  for  our  States  of  the  South  to  begin  to  be  equal  with  your  States 
of  the  North.  And  then,  as  we  all  advance  onward  in  the  grand  march  ot  improve- 
ment,—  and  we  want  tens  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  you  to  come  among  us, 
and  be  with  us  and  of  us,  and,  at  the  same  time,  to  aid  us,  by  sound  counsel  and 
otherwise,  in  the  varied  and  arduous  duties  and  responsibilities  which  are  now 
devolving  upon  us,  —  we  shall  begin  to  challenge  you  in  good  earnest;  not  to  the 
battle-field,  but  to  courteous  emulation  and  rivalry  in  all  of  the  noble  arts  and  re- 
finements, ay,  and  also  occasionally  in  some  of  the  more  innocent  and  manly 
games  and  sports,  of  peace  and  civilization. 


APPENDIX  II. 


IDENTICALNESS   OF  THE   SENTIMENT  AND  SCOPE   OP   "THE 
IMPENDING  CRISIS  OF  THE  SOUTH,"  AND  "  NOJOQUE." 


A  LETTER  FROM  MR.   HELPER. 


ASHEVILLE,  North  Carolina,  January  22,  1SS8. 
To  the  Editors  of  the  National  Intelligencer: — 

Once  more  I  beg  leave  to  reiterate  the  fact,  and,  at  the  same  time,  by  an  appeal 
to  the  record,  to  offer  evidences  of  the  fact  (in  reply  to  sundry  ill-founded  accusa- 
tions to  the  contrary),  that  my  views,  of  however  little  importance  they  may  be, 
touching  the  negro,  have  never  undergone  any  change  whatever.  I  have  declared 
heretofore,  and  I  now  declare  again,  that  there  is,  in  reality,  no  inconsistency  of 
statement,  whether  with  reference  to  the  negroes,  or  with  reference  to  slavery, 
between  my  two  political  works,  "  The  Impending  Crisis  of  the  South"  and 
"  Nojoque."  It  has  been  said,  by  many  persons  of  loose  habits  of  utterance,  both 
North  and  South,  and  it  is  believed  by  some,  but  by  no  one  who  has  ever  read  the 
book  with  his  eyes  open,  that  the  former  work,  "  The  Impending  Crisis,"  was  writ- 
ten in  the  interest  of  the  negroes,  and  in  a  spirit  of  hostility  to  the  whites.  This 
is  simply  untrue.  And  now  for  the  proofs  of  my  declaration.  Turn  to  the  dedica- 
tion page  of  "  The  Impending  Crisis  "  (and  in  order  that  you  may  be  enabled  to 
do  so  conveniently,  I  herewith  transmit  a  copy  to  your  address),  and  you  will  there 
find  that  the  book  is  conspicuously  dedicated — to  whom?  Not  to  the  negroes, 
mark  you,  nor  to  their  masters,  but  "  To  THK  NON-SLAVEHOLDING  WHITES  OF 
THE  SOUTH."  Does  not  this  dedication  of  itself  show  plainly  to  every  candid 
mind  the  Caucasian  drift  of  the  whole  work  ? 

Now,  turn  to  the  preface  and  see  what  I  have  said  there.  From  the  second 
paragraph,  I  quote  as  follows :  — 

"  In  writing  this  book,  it  has  been  no  part  of  my  purpose  to  cast  unmerited 
opprobrium  upon  slaveholders,  nor  to  display  any  special  friendliness  or  sympathy 
for  the  blacks.  I  have  considered  my  subject  more  particularly  with  reference  to 
its  economic  aspects  as  regards  the  whites,  not  with  reference,  except  in  a  very 
slight  degree,  to  its  humanitarian  or  religious  aspects." 

Without  going  into  the  body  of  the  book,  these  quotations  from  the  dedication 
and  the  preface,  ought,  it  seems  to  me,  to  be  quite  sufficient ;  but,  if  you  will 
grant  me  the  space,  I  will  bring  forward  three  or  four  additional  extracts.  On 
page  145, 1  said :  — 

"All  mankind  may  or  may  not  be  the  descendants  of  Adam  and  Eve.  Incur 
own  humble  way  of  thinking,  we  are  frank  to  confess,  we  do  not  believe  in  the 
unity  of  the  races." 

On  page  85, 1  said :  — 

"  Confined  to  the  orginal  States  in  which  it  existed,  the  system  of  enforced 
servitude  would  soon  have  been  disposed  of  by  legislative  enactments,  and  long 
before  the  present  day,  by  a  gradual  process  that  could  have  shocked  no  interest 
and  alarmed  no  prejudice,  we  would  have  rid  ourselves  not  only  of  African  slav- 
ery, which  is  an  abomination  and  a  curse,  but  also  of  the  negroes  themselves, 
who,  in  our  judgment,  whether  viewed  in  relation  to  their  actual  characteristics 
and  condition,  or  through  the  strong  antipathies  of  the  whites,  are,  to  say  the  least, 
an  undesirable  population." 

On  page  143,  the  country,  at  the  time  I  wrote,  having  been  in  a  comparatively 
wealthy  and  uncrippled  condition,  I  advocated  the  raising  of  a  large  sum :  — 

"  One-half  of  which  sum  would  be  amply  sufficient  to  land  every  negro  in  this 
country  on  the  coast  of  Liberia,  whither,  if  we  had  the  power,  we  would  ship 
them  all  within  the  next  six  months." 

249 


250  APPENDIX. 

Pursuing  this  idea  of  colonization,  I  said,  on  page  144 :  — 

"  Let  us  charter  all  the  ocean  steamers,  packets,  and  clipper  ships  that  can  be 
had  on  liberal  terms,  and  keep  them  constantly  plying  between  the  ports  of  Amer- 
ica and  Africa,  until  all  the  slaves  who  arc  here  held  in  bondage  shall  enjoy  free- 
dom in  the  land  of  their  fathers.  Under  a  well-devised  and  properly  conducted 
system  of  operations,  only  a  few  years  would  be  required  to  redeem  the  United 
States  from  the  monstrous  curse  of  negro  slavery." 

Dozens  of  similar  extracts  might  be  given;  but  I  will  neither  trespass  on  my 
own  time  by  transcribing  them,  nor  on  yours  by  asking  you  to  publish  them.  It 
was  my  intention  that  my  "  Impending  Crisis"  should  DC  an  earnest  anti-slavery 
appeal  to  the  great  majority  of  the  white  people  of  the  South,  and  not,  in  any 
sense,  nor  to  any  extent,  an  appeal  to  the  negro ;  and  I  challenge  any  one  to 
quote  from  the  book  a  single  page,  paragraph,  sentence,  line,  or  word,  that,  when 
critically  examined  and  fairly  interpreted,  will  justify  the  assumption  that  I  ever 
regarded  the  negro  otherwise  than  as  a  very  inferior  and  almost  worthless  sort  of 
man,  not  to  be  kept  in  slavery,  increased,  and  retained  among  us,  but  to  be  freed, 
colonized,  justly  and  liberally  provided  for,  and  then  put  wholly  upon  his  own 
resources,  and  left  to  himself. 

My  opposition  to  slavery  (and,  If  possible,  I  am  more  opposed  to  it  now  than  I 
•was  ten  years  ago)  looked  to  the  ultimate  whitening  up  of  all  the  Southern  States, 
and  not  to  the  spreading,  nor  to  the  continuance  of  that  foul  blackness  and  discol- 
oration of  them  which  then  existed,  which  still  exists,  and  which  the  radical  party 
are  now  viciously  and  criminally  endeavoring  to  perpetuate.  No  worker  in  wood 
ever  grooved  a  plank  with  more  set  purpose  to  introduce  therein  the  tongue  or  the 
dovetail  of  another  plank,  than  I  wrote  the  "  Impending  Crisis  "  with  the  fixed 
determination,  if  spared,  to  follow  the  same,  in  due  time,  with  "  AVyo<y«e."  The 
abolition  of  slavery  was  only  a  necessary  step,  a  .-•///(•  qua  non,  toward  tbe  accom- 
plishment of  a  still  nobler  work,  which,  despite  the  formidable  opposition  encoun- 
tered through  the  baseness,  the  treason,  and  the  tyranny  of  a  usurpatory  Congress, 
is  now  in  rapid  process  of  consummation.  A  few  years  more,  and  the  United 
States  of  America,  if  not  the  whole  of  America,  will  be  found  to  be  happily  and 
prosperously  and  permanently  peopled  by  vigorous  and  all- triumphing  offshoots 
of  the  white  races  only. 


INDEX. 


Adams,  John,  177,  178. 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  178. 

African  Anecdotes,  130-133. 

African  Repository,  170. 

Agassiz,  Prof.  Louis,  210. 

Albinos,  223-226. 

Alexander,  James  Edward,  31,  76, 120. 

American  Writers  on  the  Negro,  173- 

216. 
Andersson,  Charles  John,  48, 49, 86,  95, 

133, 170.      rj.jji 

"Ariel,"  219. 

Baker,  Samuel  White,  16, 17,  33,  34, 42, 

50,  75,  85,  93,94, 115,  116, 118,  119, 

123,  134, 146, 153, 162, 163. 
Baldwin,  William  Charles,  101, 104. 
Barbarity  and  Blood-thirstiness  of  the 

Negroes,  29-37. 

Barrow,  Sir  John,  120, 159, 168. 
Barth,  Henry,  40,  51,  78, 84,  91,  95,  129, 

141. 
Begging,  Extortion,  and  Bobbery  in 

Negroland,  82-89. 
Benton,  Thomas  Hart,  179. 
Black  (color)  disliked  by  the  Negroes, 

102-105. 

Blair,  Montgomery,  182, 183,  221. 
Blood-thirstiness  and  Barbarity  of  the 

Negroes,  29-37. 
Boston  Post,  68. 
Bowen,  T.  J.,  138. 
Britton,  Hamette  G.,  27, 49. 


Brooks,  James,  193, 194, 195. 
Bruce,  James,  15,  64,  75, 166. 
Burial  Rites  in  Negroland,  118-122. 
Burmeister,  Dr.  Hermann,   122,  171, 

229. 
Burton,  Richard  F.,  32,  40,  51, 52,  63, 81, 

82,  83,  89,  90,  99,  104,  114,  119,  120, 

128,  138,  141,  142, 154,  155, 163, 164, 

165. 
Butcheries  and  sacrifices  (human)  in 

Negroland,  19-25. 

California  Legislature,  222. 

Caillie,  Re'ne',  43, 101, 146, 147, 156. 

Campbell,  John,  92,  111,  144, 156. 

Cannibalism  in  Negroland,  15-19. 

Canot,  Theodore,  24,  25,  34-37,  44,  64, 
76, 114,  123,  132, 169. 

Carousals  in  Negroland,  80-82. 

Caucasian  Races,  increasing  Pre-emi- 
nence and  Predominance  of  the, 
227-236. 

Clapperton,  Hugh,  38,  48,  80,  97,  103, 
108,  109,  121,  127, 142, 143. 

Clay,  Henry,  179. 

Color  (black)  disliked  by  the  Negroes, 
102-105. 

Courtship,  Marriage,  and  Concubinage 
in  Negroland,  105-117. 

Cowardice  of  the  Negroes,  125-130. 

Cox,  S.  S.,  188, 189. 

Crawfurd,  John,  217. 

Cruickshank,  Brodie,  41,  58,  135,  145. 
251 


252 


INDEX. 


Cumming,  Gordon,  71, 84, 153. 
Customs,  Habits,  and  Manners,  in  Ne- 

groland,  138-152. 
Cnvier,  218,  227. 

Darwin,  Charles,  218,  219. 

Decrease  of  the  Negro  Race,  158-161. 

Denham,  Dixon,  95, 131. 

Denham  and  Clapperton,  16,  38,  01, 108, 
128,  143,  166. 

Dishonesty  of  the  Negroes,  94-97. 

Doctors  in  Negroland,  70-74. 

Doolittle,  James  R.,  184, 185, 186. 

Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  182. 

Drayson,  Alfred  W.,  49, 114,  168. 

Drunkenness  and  Debauchery  In  Ne- 
groland, 79, 80. 

Du  Chaillu,  Paul  B.,  17-19,  26,  33,  44, 
53-56,  59,  60,  72,  73,  77,  79,  93,  97, 
112,  113,  125,  126,  130,  138,  148, 149, 
156,  158, 159,  172. 

Duncan,  John,  23,  25,  28,  33,  39,  69,  77, 
96,  110,  122,  145,  146,  170. 

English,  Thomas  Dunn,  216. 
Extinction   (probable)    of   the   Negro 

Race,  158-161. 
Extortion  and  Robbery  in  Negroland, 

82-89. 

Failure  of  Missionary  Enterprises  in 

Negroland,  134-138. 
Fetichism,   Priestcraft,    and    Idolatry 

in  Negroland,  57-70. 
Fisher,  Sydney  George,  196,  197,  231. 
Foote,  Andrew  H.,  28,  30,  65, 136. 
Freeman,  J.  J.,  21-23, 31, 68, 71, 121, 159, 

160. 
Funeral  Rites  in  Negroland,  118-122. 

Glover,  Samuel  T.,  213. 


Gluttony  of  the  Negroes,  100-102. 
Godwin,  Parke,  215. 
Guyot,  Arnold,  227,  228. 

Habits,  Manners,  and  Customs  In  Ne- 
groland, 138-152. 

Harris,  Cornwallis,  39,  84, 102. 

Helper,  Hinton  R.  (Extracts  from 
"  Nojoque  "),  199-208.  See  also 
the  Introduction  and  the  Appen- 
dixes to  the  volume  in  hand. 

Hendricks,  Thomas  A.,  187. 

Human  Butcheries  and  Human  Sacri- 
fices in  Negroland,  19-25. 

Hutchinson,  Thomas  J.,  29,  94, 104, 126, 
154,  226. 

Huts,  Hovels,  and  Holes  (but  no 
Houses)  in  Negroland,  152-158. 

Huxley,  Thomas  H.,  17. 

Idolatry  in  Negroland,  57-70. 

Indolence  and  Improvidence  of  the 
Negroes,  122-125. 

Inhospitality  to  Strangers  in  Negro- 
land,  82-89. 

Increasing  Pre-eminence  and  Predom- 
inance of  the  White  Races,  227- 
236. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  173-177,  220, 224. 

Kicherer,  Mr.,  92, 150. 
Krapf,  Louis,  87,  134,  160. 

Lander,  Richard,  24,  37, 62, 63, 75,  81, 91, 
92,  97,  100,  105,  109,  126,  153, 167. 

Lawlessness  and  Misery  in  Negroland 
89-94. 

Laziness  of  the  Negroes,  122-125. 

Lichtenstein,  Dr.  Henry,  91,  101,  111, 
112,  148,  157,  158,  169. 

Lieber,  Francis,  228. 


INDEX. 


253 


Lincoln,  Abraham,  180, 181. 

Livingstone,  Charles,  26. 

Livingstone,  David,  21, 28,  30,  47, 60,  61, 
70,  76,  80,  101,  102,  103,  110,  121, 
122,  137, 138,  139,  140, 157,  171, 172. 

London  Dispatch,  135. 

Lopez,  Eduardo,  17. 

Lyell,  Sir  Charles,  165. 

Lying,  an  African  Accomplishment,  97, 


Macbrair,  R.  M.,  90. 

Mann,  Horace,  235. 

Manners,  Habits,  and  Customs  in  Ne- 
groland,  138-152. 

Marriage  and  Concubinage  In  Negro- 
land,  105-117. 

Mental,  Physical,  and  Moral  Differ- 
ences between  the  Whites  and 
the  Blacks,  162-172. 

Missionary  Enterprises,  Failure  of  in 
Negroland,  134-138. 

Moffat,  Robert,  30,  48,  100,  132,  150, 
152. 

Moore,  Francis,  51,  79,  98, 118, 132. 

Morton,  Samuel  George,  209, 210. 

Mulattoes,  the  Offspring  of  Crimes 
against  Nature,  216-223. 

Mumbo  Jumbo  in  Negroland,  117, 118. 

Mungen,  William,  190, 191. 

Murray,  Hugh,  19,  20,  41,  49,  65,  86,  89, 
110,  137, 142, 155,  167. 

Nakedness  and  Shamelessness  in  Ne- 
groland, 75-78. 
National  Intelligencer,  129. 
New  American  Cyclopaedia,  225. 
New  York  Tribune,  136, 173. 
Night  Carousals  in  Negroland,  80-82. 
North  British  Review,  229. 
Nott,  Josiah  Clark,  211,  216, 233. 
22 


Ogilby,  John,  15,  16,  78,  87,  96,  98,  128, 
133,  149. 

Park,  Mungo,  37,87,  88,94, 104, 127, 153, 

167. 

Parker,  Theodore,  234. 
Parton  James,  214. 
Penury  and  Misery  in  Negroland,  89- 

94. 
Physical,  Mental,  and  Moral  Differences 

between  the    Whites   and    the 

Blacks,  162, 172. 

Polygamy  in  Negroland,  105-117. 
Priestcraft,  Fetichism,  and  Idolatry  in 

Negroland,  57-70. 
Probable    Extinction  of    the  Negro 

Race,  158-161. 

Prostitution  and  Nakedness  in  Negro- 
land,  75-78. 

Rain-doctors  In  Negroland,  70-74. 

Raleigh  Register,  124. 

Reade,  Winwood,  32,  57,  77,  90,  95, 104, 

116,  117,  125,  136, 150,  165, 166. 
Richardson,  James,  61,  125, 144,  167. 
Robbing  Strangers  in  Negroland,  82-89. 

Sacrifices,  human,  in  Negroland,  19- 
25. 

Scott,  Anna  M.,  87, 114, 137, 146. 

Seward,  Wm.  H.,  179, 180. 

Shamelessness  and  Nakedness  in  Ne- 
groland, 75-78. 

Skulls,  human,  as  sacred  Relics  and 
Ornaments  in  Negroland,  25-29. 

Slavery  and  the  Slave-trade  in  Negro* 
land,  37-44. 

Smith,  Charles  Hamilton,  41,  170,  229, 
230. 

Speke,  John  Banning,  42,  50,  98,  123, 
130,  131,  160. 

Steedman,  Andrew,  45,  72, 144. 


254 


INDEX. 


Strangers,  Inhospitality  to,  In  Negro- 
land,  82-89. 

Superstition  and  Witchcraft  in  Negro- 
land,  45-57. 

Theft  as  a  Fine  Art  among  the  Afri- 
cans, 94-97. 

Timidity  and  Cowardice  of  the  Ne- 
groes, 125-130. 

Thurman,  A.  G.,  187. 

Untruthfulness  of  the  Negroes,  97, 98. 

Valdez,  Francisco  Travassos,  17, 31, 43, 
63,  77,  84,  112, 125, 147, 148. 

Van  Evrie,  J.  H.,  211, 212. 

Venality  of  the  Negroes,  98-100. 

Voracity  and  Gluttony  of  the  Negroes, 
100-102. 


Webster,  Daniel,  178, 179, 235. 

Westminster  Review,  85. 

Weston,  George  M.,  215, 231, 232, 

Wheelock,  E.  M.,  161. 

White  (color),  the  Negro's  Affection  for 
the,  102-105. 

White  Negroes  (Albinos),  223-226. 

White  Races,  Pre-eminence  and  Pre- 
dominance of  the,  227-236. 

White,  Richard   Grant,  213,  214,  232. 

Wilson,  J.  Leighton,  21,  39,  45,  65,  66, 
72,  103,  105,  106, 107, 108, 118,  128, 
151,226. 

Witchcraft  in  Negroland,  45-57. 

Wrangling  and  Lawlessness  in  Negro- 
land,  89-94. 


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WOJOQUE 


A  QUESTION  FOB  A  CONTINENT.  By  Iliuton  Kowan  Helper,  of 
North  Carolina,  author  of  "  The  Impending  Crisis  of  the  South."  ***One 
large  handsome  12mo.  volume,  479  pages,  elegantly  printed  and  bound 
in  cloth.  Price,  $2.00. 


OPINIONS    OF    THE    PRESS. 

"  Mr.  Helper  is  from  North  Carolina,  and  is  an  exponent  of  the  ideas  of  a  great  majority 
in  the  Middle  States.  We  may  say  that,  hud  he  lived  in  colonial  times,  his  book  would 
have  been  well  received  even  in  New  Kngland,  for  the  same  reason  that  it  will  bo  popular 
in  his  own  region  now.  For  in  those  days  negroes  were  numerous  here,  and  were  despised  ; 
now  they  are  scarce,  only  the  most  intelligent  surviving  and  remaining-  among  u».  It  is  a 
fact,  which  any  careful  observer  may  verily,  that  where  the  negro  is  least  known,  he  is 
most  respected,  and  where  he  most  nboundj  he  is  least  appreciated,  ns  an  intellectual  being, 
while  in  all  region*  where  white  Inlior  is  better  adapted  to  the  soil,  he  is  regarded,  from 
every  point  of  view,  as  an  intolerable  nuisance.  Thusitwas  in  Vermont,  where  m  groes 
were  nearly  as  scarce  as  monkeye,  the  good  people  took  such  a  deep  interest  in  them, 
thiit  their  State  passed  the  first 'Personal  Liberty  Bill;1  while  Kentucky  and  Maryland  — 
which  two  States  lost  ten  times  as  many  slaves  as  all  the  other  Southern  States  combined, 

the  border  free  States  had  such  an  abhorrence  of  the  blacks,  that  thsir  Legislatures  passed 
stringent  laws  to  deprive  those  who  were  among  them,  the  rights  of  citizenship  and  domi- 
cile. *  *  *  The  Republicans  and  the  Ifadicals  are  now  at  loggerheads ;  and  it  is  '  a  very 
pretty  quarrel,'  which  Mr.  Helper's  new  bonk  will  greatly  Intensify." — Boston  Courier. 


against  negro  suffrage,  or  the  recognition  of  nny  of  the  dark  races  as  the  equal  of  the 
white  man,  socially,  intellectually,  or  politically.  They  will  find  in  it  the  most  slashing 
and  conclusive  argument!  ever  published  on  their  side  of  the  paramount  political  question 
now  agitating  the  country.  The  author  gives  lists  of  many  of  the  great  men  in  politics, 
governmenr,  literature,  science  and  the  arts,  from  the  earliest  ages  down  to  the  present, 
d«y;  und  the  name  of  no  negro  nppenrs  among  them.  The  argument  is,  thatiftha 
negro  had  been  anybody,  he  would  have  given  evidence  of  the  fact  at  some  period  of  his 
existence:  that  white  mm  have  done  all  the  thinking  a-nd  working  that  have  moved  the 
world;  the  negro,  meanwhile,  remaining  a  mere  Mack  and  barren  spot  on  its  surface. 
This  is  tfojoqur,." — St.  Louis  JCcpublicaa. 


"This  work  is  eertninly  very  unique,  and  gives  evidence  of  a  great  deal  of  literary 
labor.  It  is  largely  a  compilation  or  series  of  extracts  from  various  well  known  writers  on 
the  subject  of  the  negro  race,  and  of  the  relation  of  the  two  races,  white  and  black,  in  the 

gated  the  subject  has  been  led  to  conclude — namely,  that  the  negro  race  is  hopelessly  in- 
ferior to  the  white  race,  and  can  never  remain  among  the  whites  upon  an  equality.  Mr. 
Helper  is,  we  think,  quite  right  in  his  impression,  that  the  gnat  body  of  the  white  people- 
in  the  United  States  do  not  desire,  and  do  n"t  intend  to  have  negroes  hung  permun- 
entlv  round  thwir  necks  by  lllack  Republican  Congressmen," — Pittsbltrff  Post. 


"  Joke  or  Xojoque,  this  is  a  very  funny  book.  The  author  wants  to  write  all  the  negroes 
out  of  America,  and  nut  only  thut,  but  to  sweep  away  the  colored  nice*,  both  blnck  and 
brown  from  the  whole  habitable  globe,  and  have  it  peopled  only  by  '  the  heaven-descended 
and  incomparably  superior  white  r.ice  of  mankind.'  This  is  the  legitimate  conclusion  of 
that  theory  of  awhile  man's  country  to  which  some  of  our  people  are  so  devotedly  attached. 
How  they  must  exult  over  Mr.  Helper's  array  of  figures  and  authorities!  "—Portland 
Transcript. 

This  work,  (Xojoqur,)  has  been  translated  into  French,  by  M.  Canonge^ 
of  New  Orleans. 

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G.   W.    CAF^LETON,   PUBLISHED,    J^EW 


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